In High-Risk Women, Nausea and Vomiting During Pregnancy May Mean Lower Risk of Pregnancy Loss

iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Nausea and vomiting are common symptoms in pregnancy, affecting up to 80 percent of pregnant women. Some studies have suggested that these symptoms, as unpleasant as they are, may be good news for the pregnancy.

A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine evaluated the relationship between symptoms such as nausea/vomiting and pregnancy loss in high risk women who had already experienced one or two past pregnancy losses. Researchers analyzed previously collected data on a total of 797 pregnant women, 188 of whom ultimately experienced another pregnancy loss.

They looked at symptoms such as nausea and vomiting that these women experienced, based on the required diaries these women kept. The study revealed that in women with nausea, the risk of pregnancy loss was slashed in half. Women with both nausea and vomiting had a 75 percent lower risk.

The findings seem to suggest that having nausea and vomiting is linked to a lower risk for pregnancy loss, at least in these high-risk women.

It is important to note that these plausible findings likely exaggerated the effect of nausea and vomiting on pregnancy loss, given that the study is done on this group of particularly high-risk women. In this study alone, the rate of pregnancy loss in this particular group was as high as 23.6 percent.. The study also does not control for many factors such as whether these women took any medication to alleviate these unpleasant pregnancy symptoms.

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