For the vast majority of women, morning sickness doesn’t truly begin until around the sixth week of your pregnancy. Generally speaking, it will continue for several weeks, beginning to subside around the 12^th week of pregnancy or so. To be sure, this isn’t a hard and fast rule. Some women may have morning sickness begin sooner than the sixth week. There are some women who have said that they experience morning sickness as early as the second week of pregnancy, from the time that a fertilized egg implants. Other women may have their morning sickness continue beyond week 12, too. Every woman is different, and every pregnancy tends to be different, as well.

It is estimated that morning sickness is experienced by about 70 percent of women. This makes morning sickness one of the most common signs of pregnancy. Especially when you couple morning sickness with a missed period, it can be a compelling reason to think that you might be pregnant.

There is a very specific biological reason that morning sickness begins around week six of your pregnancy. There is some research that suggests morning sickness is caused, at least in part, by the various changes in hormone levels that take place during pregnancy. This is consistent with what we know about pregnancy. By about week six, your hCG levels are rising. They will continue to rise for several weeks. Generally speaking, they will stabilize at around week 12 of pregnancy. This connection between hCG and pregnancy isn’t necessarily a proven or established fact, but it’s most certainly a plausible theory.

The good news about morning sickness is that, regardless of when it begins, it’s going to end eventually. Most women won’t experience more than mild inconvenience due to morning sickness. If, however, your morning sickness is severe, persistent, or accompanied by prolonged vomiting, you need to make sure you talk to your doctor about the problem. If you can’t keep food down, it’s going to be hard for your body and for your baby to get the nutrition that you both need in order to have a happy and healthy pregnancy.

The fact of the matter is that there’s no hard and fast rule about when morning sickness will end. It can be very different for every pregnancy. Notice that we said every “pregnancy,” and not every “woman.” You see, you might actually have very different morning sickness experiences from one pregnancy to the next. All of that being said, we can look at some overall trends and see that morning sickness, on average, will end by around week 12 of your pregnancy.

To be sure, there are women for whom morning sickness lasts longer than the 12^th week of pregnancy. There are some women who suffer from morning sickness well into the second trimester. Those are fairly rare, however. Really, morning sickness after week 12 is considered to be rare overall.

Morning sickness tends to begin at about the sixth week of pregnancy. What this means is that, for most women, you can count on about six weeks of morning sickness. Some women might start sooner, of course, and some might start later. A surprising 30 percent of women never experience any morning sickness, as a matter of fact.

While researchers aren’t completely certain, morning sickness may be related to the levels of the pregnancy hormone hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) in your body. This is the same hormone that a pregnancy test looks for. HCG rises in your system, at first enough so that a pregnancy test can detect it, and then moreso between weeks six and 12 of pregnancy. The rise and fall of hCG seems to correspond very well to the rise and fall of morning sickness, although again this isn’t necessarily a conclusive thing yet.

If your morning sickness doesn’t end by around the time you start your second trimester, you should probably talk to your doctor. It could actually be that your upset stomach or nausea has a different cause, quite apart from morning sickness. You should also talk to your doctor if your nausea is severe and you’re having trouble keeping food down, as this will dramatically affect the nutrition that both you and your growing baby are getting.

Around 70 percent of all pregnant women will have at least a little bit of morning sickness during pregnancy. What’s unfortunate about morning sickness is the fact that many of the medications you might otherwise use for nausea or an upset stomach haven’t been tested to be safely used by pregnant women. In addition, many women choose to avoid medications whenever possible during pregnancy, even if they may usually be considered safe. Fortunately, there are a number of natural morning sickness remedies that you can consider to help with your suffering.

Here are some of the best natural morning sickness remedies:

• Ginger. Ginger has long been used to help calm an upset stomach, and it’s a wonderful option during pregnancy. Ginger tea is one way you can use ginger to soothe your morning sickness. Ginger supplements may be another way. Some women experience success with a ginger ale soda, but you’ll want to make sure you’re avoiding too much caffeine of course.
• Other supplements. In addition to ginger, there are a variety of other nutritional supplements that you might consider using for morning sickness, such as peppermint. Peppermint teas, supplements using peppermint and other sources of peppermint are also very often good options.
• Prevention. One of the most important natural remedies for morning sickness is more along the lines of prevention. It is important to avoid those things that might trigger your morning sickness. This would include things like foods that are high in saturated fats, foods that are spicy, and foods that tend to have strong smells. In addition, eating small and frequent meals rather than 3 large meals during the day may help with morning sickness, as it will keep you from feeling either too hungry or too full. In addition, prenatal vitamins may occasionally be responsible for morning sickness, though if you believe this to be the case you should definitely speak with your health care provider before you stop taking them.

The good news is that your morning sickness, eventually, will go away. By about the 12^th week of pregnancy, you can expect it to dissipate, giving you some relief from some of those early frustrations of pregnancy.