Ginger for Morning Sickness

If there is one thing pregnant moms have in common, it is their overwhelmingly strong (i. e. fierce!) desire to care for their little one properly and never ever do, eat or drink anything that could harm her!  When I was in my first trimester and trying to find a remedy for the nausea I'd have consistently after eating breakfast (and after going to bed, and...ha!), my first thought was the oft-suggested, highly-acclaimed herbal remedy: ginger. Being the Mama Bear that I was, though, I wanted to make absolutely sure it was safe for Ada before taking it regularly.

So, here's the research, folks:

Sources AGAINST Ginger in pregnancy:

1. German Commission E

                                                              i.      Namakura and Yamamoto, 1982; Nagabhushan et al., 1987. These studies in Japan on ginger constituent 6-gingerol indicated via in vitro testing that gingerol has mutagenic activity at high doses. However, the American Botanical Council points out that “other compounds in ginger have been found to exhibit anti-mutagenic activity (Kada et al., 1978). Whenever we isolate a single chemical constituent we are dealing with something vastly different from the herb we drew it from—and most likely it is less safe (not having the benefit of synergy—the chemical "checks and balances" system).

Sources FOR Ginger in pregnancy:

a.      AHPA (American Herbal Products Association)

                                                               i.            Chittumma et al,, 2007 

                                                             ii.            Fischer-Rasmussen et al., 1991 

                                                            iii.            Keating and Chez 2002

                                                           iv.            Smith et al., 2004

                                                             v.            Sripramote and Lekhyananda 2003

                                                           vi.            Vutyavanich et al., 2001

                                                          vii.            Willetts et al., 2003

b.      European Medicines Agency’s HMPC (Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products)

                                                              i.            Borelli et al., 2005

                                                            ii.            Ensiyh et al., 2009

c.       HerbalInformation.Awardspace.com
                             i.            From their website: “In a double-blind randomized cross-over clinical trial, ginger (250mg by mouth, 4 times daily) effectively treated pernicious vomiting in pregnancy. No teratogenic aberrations were observed in infants born during this study, and all newborn babies had Apgar scores of 9 or 10 after 5 minutes.”

These studies in particular demonstrated conclusively that ginger was indeed effective in reducing nausea and vomiting: Fischer-Rasmussen et al., 1991; Keating et al., 2002; Ozgoli et al., 2009; Smith et al., 2004; Vutyavanich et al., 2001; Willetts, 2003. Versus a placebo, a dosage of 1-1.5g of ginger was shown to be significantly effective in decreasing the number of vomiting episodes in expectant mothers within the first trimester. And most importantly, the use of ginger was well tolerated with only minor side effects (Fischer-Rasmussen, 1991; Hollyer, 2002; Enysieh et al., 2009; Ozgoli et al., 2009).

My conclusion?

In keeping with this research (plus TONS of historical and anecdotal evidence - if you're not convinced, just do a quick google search to see what I mean!), I am confident a dose of 1-2 g daily (divided into three doses) should be completely safe in pregnancy. I am thankful it was available to me during my pregnancy with Ada!

Mama's, I want to hear from you: Do you use ginger in pregnancy? What are your favorite remedies for pregnancy nausea and queasiness?