What does it mean if you don't get morning sickness?
Worried that not being sick or feeling nauseous in early pregnancy means something's wrong with your baby? Our expert family GP is here to reassure...
Morning sickness is a common symptom of early pregnancy and, while it feels pretty horrible, its queasy presence can reassures many women that their pregnancy is progressing to plan.
So, what if you're pregnant but not feeling sick or nauseous in the slightest, like Kas from our MadeForMums community? "I was 8 weeks pregnant before I found out," she says. "When I told people, they were asking me if I feeling sick. It made me really panic as I wasn't at all."
What does it mean if you don't have morning sickness?
Approximately 7 or 8 out of 10 women¹² will have morning sickness in their first trimester of pregnancy – be that occasional nausea or daily vomiting – with symptoms gradually improving by around 16 to 20 weeks of pregnancy.
This means that around 2 or 3 out of every 10 women will not get symptoms of morning sickness and this is entirely normal.
It does not mean that there is something wrong with your developing baby.
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Even if you had morning sickness in a previous pregnancy, you may not get it again this time round – in fact, morning sickness is known to be more common in first pregnancies.
My own personal experience was exactly that: in my first pregnancy, I was sick as a dog, up to 8 or 10 times a day – on the train, at work, on the street, everywhere. It was horrid! But for baby number two, I had no sickness at all, bar one vomit!
Does no morning sickness mean I'm more likely to miscarry?
There is a US study from 2016³ that suggests that pregnant women who experience morning sickness are 50% to 75% less likely to have a miscarriage than those who didn't experience morning sickness.
But this is only one study and there may well have been other factors involved. I'm clear that not having morning sickness is not a cause for concern.
So, if you don't have any nausea or vomiting, please don't worry. It doesn't mean anything is wrong: you're just lucky!
Does it mean I'm having a boy?
Nope! You can have – or not have – morning sickness whether you are pregnant with a boy or a girl.
References:
1 Severe vomiting in pregnancy. NHS online
2. A prospective study of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. Gadsby et al. Br J Gen Pract. 1993 Jun;43(371):245-8. Erratum in: Br J Gen Pract 1993 Aug;43(373):325. PMID: 8373648; PMCID: PMC1372422; Why seven in ten women experience pregnancy sickness. University of Cambridge, 13 December 2023
3. NIH study links morning sickness to lower risk of pregnancy loss. The National Institutes of Health, USA
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