This information is from health care professionals and groups such as Mayo Clinic, and should be used as a point of reference or as a generality, because each pregnancy is unique:

Morning sickness is a symptom some women feel during early pregnancy. It starts after conception which may or may not occur after unprotected intercourse. So, first confirm that you are pregnant by using a home pregnancy test, and if positive, make an appointment for a health care professional to confirm those results and to start prenatal care.

Once you have a confirmed pregnancy, the morning sickness usually starts around the first 4 to 6 weeks of pregnancy and it tends to get worse over the next month or so after it begins. However, for some women, the queasiness begins as early as two weeks after conception.

Morning sickness for the majority of women stops around the 12 th week, but for many women it continues until the 14th to 16th week. About half of the women feel complete relief by 14 weeks. For the rest, it may take one more month or so for it to stop. It can return later, and for some unlucky women it can come and go throughout the entire pregnancy. There isn't a set time for it to stop because each woman is different, and each pregnancy is different.

If nausea and vomiting persists well into the second trimester (after the 13th week) you should contact your doctor just to be on the safe side. It isn't harmful to you or your baby unless you have excessive vomiting and can't keep anything down. If you are unable to eat or drink fluids and keep it down for 24 hours straight, you may have something called hyperemesis gravidarum. This condition can be harmful to both you and your baby, so you should contact your doctor right away to see if you need any special treatment.

As stated above, each pregnancy is unique, so here is some information from various contributors about their experiences:

• It starts at about the 4th-6th week of pregnancy and lasts until the 14th or 16th week.
• Morning sickness can occur at any stage of pregnancy but is more common in early pregnancy. It can start as soon as you become pregnant, or before you even know you may be pregnant, this is usually due to all the hormones whizzing around inside you and your body trying to keep up with all the changes and surges of hormones.
• Some women never have morning sickness, some have it in the morning, some in the evening and others all day. With my first I had nausea in the evenings and would fall asleep about 7pm, this lasted until about 13 weeks.
• With my second I had no nausea or tiredness, and it turned out to be twins.
• It varies from woman to woman... When I was pregnant with my girls, I have 2, I had morning sickness from 4 weeks up to month 5, straight. With my boys, no morning sickness at all.
• I started feeling sick one week after my missed period, which is how I found out that I was pregnant.
• You can have morning sickness early. When I was pregnant with my son, I found out I was pregnant 2 weeks after unprotected sex due to morning sickness!! I had been getting it for almost a week before it got so bad, I knew it wasn't a bug!
• Well, one week after conceiving, the embryo is no larger than a bundle of cells in your uterus. Morning sickness due to pregnancy does not occur until the embryo is implanted and producing sufficient hormones to affect you, usually from about 3 weeks after conception.
• Everyone is different, you may get it within a week of being pregnant, or at any time. Some people only have it for the first trimester and for others it may be with them all through the nine months (but usually not every day). Morning sickness can happen any time during the day, not just in the morning. I had it only if I ate certain foods, but in the first couple of weeks, I felt like I wanted to throw up but I never would. Right now I am 10 weeks into pregnancy and feel great. I just sleep ALOT but that is normal.
• Weeks six through twelve for me.
• I got it at 5 weeks, most women get it at 6 weeks, but some can get it as soon as 3 weeks (it is just more common not to get it until 5-6 weeks).
• I've been pregnant twice and I began symptoms around a month into it both times.
• Some women have it in the first week or so and some women never have it.
• Some people don't get it, some people do. Usually it hits at about 3-4 wks
• It can vary with every pregnancy. I have had three kids and all have been different. My first pregnancy I had a feeling of light headedness within 2 weeks of my missed period. In my last trimester it probably settled down at about the 8 month mark. My second pregnancy was totally different. I may have had a few days that I felt lightheaded or my blood sugar was low, but it was a breeze. The last, all I wanted to do was eat and I was queasy just for 3 months or so. So you never know what it is going to be like. I know someone said "the more sick you are the healthier the baby."
• You can feel morning sickness as early as a week after conception or sooner.
• I think it's different for each woman, and each woman's pregnancy. I think the general rule is the first trimester.
• Morning sickness usually starts (if at all) between the 4th and 8th week after conception. On average, morning sickness lasts until sometime between the 14th and the 22nd week.
• As soon as conception occurs, hormones are released to prepare your body for the upcoming months of pregnancy and the eventual birth of your baby. These hormones signal to your body to increase blood volume and to prepare the uterus for upcoming growth. Even your joints and muscles have to relax to enable them to move out of the way of your growing baby. These hormones are also causing your morning sickness. Until your body adjusts to the new hormone levels, you may be feeling nauseous. Every pregnant woman reacts differently to these hormonal changes, making it hard to pinpoint exactly how soon after conception morning sickness starts.
• The majority of pregnant women start to experience morning sickness somewhere between the 4th and 8th week of pregnancy. It can, however start as early as the day after conception. For some women, it doesn't start until about the 19th week of pregnancy, and some never experience it.
• Morning sickness can also occur at any time of day -- not just the morning!
• Usually it ends at the end of the first three months (first trimester) - It was like clockwork for me. I felt great at the beginning of the 2nd Trimester!
• It often starts in American movies the day after fertilization or conception (along with fainting). However, in reality, it begins after about six to eight weeks.
• Morning sickness caused by pregnancy begins between the 4th and 7th week after last menstrual period, and it resolves by 20th week of gestation.
• Morning sickness affects 50-70% of pregnant women. Which means, there is a chance that you will not get morning sickness at all. However, morning sickness is also a good sign for a successful pregnancy, because women who experience morning sickness (especially vomiting) are less likely to have miscarriages, stillbirths, low birth weight babies and preterm deliveries. In addition, one should avoid anti-emetics to treat morning sickness because the mechanism of how pregnancy causes morning sickness is not known. Your symptoms of pregnancy will usually appear anywhere from the first week of your expected period to 1-2 weeks after your first week of expected period. Your first signs of pregnancy most commonly include missed period, tender/swollen breasts, change in color of the breasts, fatigue, nausea/vomiting, increased sense of smell, and weight gain.
• For some women it can happen as soon as the egg implants itself (the time of conception), which can take up to 5 days after fertilization. Usually during second pregnancies the woman will feel the sickness early and shows signs of pregnancy earlier than her first.
• Morning sickness can affect a woman at any time in her pregnancy and at any time of the day too. It is more common in the mornings and nearer the beginning of the pregnancy (hence the term!). I have heard of some women who had it very bad and almost right to the very end of their pregnancy. It's not common, but morning sickness affects different women in different ways and at different times - there truly is no "normal" with morning sickness!
• It will show up only after two to three weeks into your pregnancy.
• Usually it starts the first few weeks. It depends on your body because you may be one of a few women who do not experience morning sickness during pregnancy.
• You may not have any nausea at all... if so, count yourself lucky. Some women get morning sickness all day, some only get a few bouts of nausea, some not at all. At six weeks you may be just about to start the nausea. If you do get nausea, eating something bland normally helps. Saltine crackers are a good thing to always have on hand for morning sickness. Morning sickness hit me at seven weeks until about three months.

Usually at around 12-16 weeks. Some women then experience it towards the end of pregnancy, but this is then more typically caused by the baby pressing on the stomach. However, just as every woman is different, every woman's pregnancy symptoms are also different. While some women never get morning sickness, others will find that theirs finishes at around 12 weeks, others not until 24 weeks and others have it for the whole pregnancy!
== == Morning sickness, if you get it at all, usually lasts until the second trimester. Not to say that a few times in the second trimester is abnormal. A few women have morning sickness later in their pregnancy, though. For the majority of women it stops around the 12th week, but for many women it continues until the 14th to 16th week. About half of the women feel complete relief by 14 weeks. For the rest, it may take one more month or so for it to stop. It can return later, and for some unlucky women it can come and go throughout the entire pregnancy. There is not a set time for it to stop because each woman is different, and each pregnancy is different.

If nausea and vomiting persists well into the second trimester (after the 13th week) you should contact your doctor just to be on the safe side. It is not harmful to you or your baby unless you have excessive vomiting and can't keep anything down.

If you have severe morning sickness, talk to your health care professional who can determine if you will need a prescription medication. The medication worked for me, but is different for every woman. Do not take over the counter medications without checking with your medical professional first.

Should you be unable to eat or drink fluids and keep it down for 24 hours straight, you may have something called hyperemesis gravidarum. This condition can be harmful to both you and your baby, so you should contact your doctor right away, if these more severe symptoms occur, to see if you need any special treatment. * Everyone is different when it comes to the lovely symptoms and side effects of pregnancy. My morning sickness went away as soon as I hit my 4th month, like someone hit the off switch, while other women have it all the way through their pregnancy. Try eating a piece of dry toast or some crackers to settle your stomach, things will get better. Congratulations and enjoy being pregnant, it can be one of the best times in your life. == == * Each pregnancy is different, some will not have morning sickness at all, some will have it the whole nine months. If you are lucky, it should start to get better by your 13th week. * It all depends on the person. With my first child I was sick the whole pregnancy. I lost 30 lbs. With my second child I lost 20 lbs but was only sick until the middle of the second trimester (unless I didn't eat first thing in the morning). For my last child I was only a little nauseated. * Normal morning sickness peaks around weeks 8-10 and feels much better by week 12 and is gone completely by week 16.

No, not every woman will experience morning sickness during pregnancy. About 75% of pregnant women have morning sickness at sometime during their pregnancy. The good thing is, obviously, you won't be sick. The bad thing is that it may be harder for you to notice your symptoms of pregnancy if you are not planning it.

Here is advice and input:

• I'm pregnant and besides getting violently ill once for a few minutes, I have not been sick. My first doctor's visit will be next week. And, I hope eveything' is fine.

• Some people don't get morning sickness at all. I know people who don't. Those people are extremely lucky.

• Not everyone has specific pregnancy symptoms. Morning sickness is a common one that many women experience.

No. It is a very common condition for women who are pregnant, but some don't even experience "morning sickness". Some women have it early in the pregnancy, for others it is late or in the middle, and in a few women it lasts the entire 9 months. I, however, am one of the lucky ones, I am 14 weeks pregnant with no morning sickness at all.

At least one fourth of all pregnancies do not involve morning sickness. Approximately 50 to 75 % of pregnant women experience a period in early pregnancy with nausea, and about 30% also experience vomiting.

Some studies have shown that you are more likely to have morning sickness if:

• You have a history of migraines.
• You had nausea and vomiting in a prior pregnancy.
• You have a medical history of negative side effects of nausea and vomiting from trying birth control pills. Some women have this response to higher estrogen levels.
• You tend to have motion sickness.
• If your mother or sisters have had morning sickness, there are studies to suggest that there is higher chance you will, due to a genetic predisposition.
• One study found that you are 50% more likely to have morning sickness with severe nausea and vomiting if your baby is a girl.
• You have twins or other multiples. There are higher levels of pregnancy hormones in your system when carrying twins, which also can make it so the symptoms are worse than average in some women. But it is not universal, some mothers of twins have no nausea or vomiting at all.

Everyone is different. Some people don't experience sickness at all. Some people do all day, everyday. Some people only every once in a while. In fact some people have no symptoms at all.

Of course every woman is different, some may experience no morning sickness at all, whereas others will experience it all the way through their pregnancy.

Nausea with vomiting is common, but a slightly more severe form of morning sickness, and too frequent vomiting can be problematic, causing dehydration, improper nutrition for mother and baby, and even electrolyte imbalance. Be sure to drink plenty of fluids (sports drinks are a good choice to replace the electrolytes, if tolerated). You would want to report it to your obstetrician if you vomit four times or more in one day or if you are unable to hold down any food or fluids for a full 24 hours.

Some lucky women do not experience any morning sickness, which is just as normal and does not mean anything is wrong with the pregnancy. And some have very severe cases of unrelenting vomiting, which is a condition called Hyperemesis Gravidarum. It requires medical intervention to assure proper fluid balance and nutrition.

The smell of cooking meat or of certain other foods or chemicals can trigger morning sickness, so try to allow plenty of flow through ventilation from the kitchen, ask someone else to do the cooking, and sniff lemons or ginger to help offset the offensive odors that cause the sickness.

See the related questions below for additional information on alleviating morning sickness.

yes the vomiting has multiple down sides a: dehydration b: erosion of the esophagus...... you should definitely follow up w/ your internal medicine physician.

Having given birth twice by induction, I can tell you what they did for me.

There are two main ways to induce labor; pitocin given by injection and/or punturing the membrane, also called "breaking the waters". When this is done, surgical utensil shaped like a crochet needle is inserted into the cervix via vaginal canal and tears a small hole in the amniotic sac. This causes the "water to break" and usually induces labor shortly thereafter.

The amniotic sac can and usually does rupture by itself when the fetus is fully grown, but this method was used on me because I was at full-term and any more growth may have resulted in health problems for the baby and I.

Word of advice: If you plan on having an epidural during labor, ask your doctor/midwife/anesthesiologist to get that going BEFORE they induce your labor. When my labor was induced, I went immediately into hard labor (also called 3rd phase) after my membrane sac was ruptured. I was only 4 centimeters dialated and fully effaced. I went from 4 to 8 centimeters within 1 very painful hour. This can be very traumatizing for anyone in their first labor, especially if they had planned on getting an epidural.

I never needed to use pitocin, so you may want to ask your doctor how this process works.

If you are wanting to be induced before your due date then there is a risk that the baby would be born prematurely. Dates and even ultrasound can sometimes be a little 'off' with accurately dating the age of a pregnancy and/ or baby. 37 weeks is usually the 'official' cut- off point for a pre- term labor but one baby may be mature at this age while another may be immature.It may risk his/her health and even their life if they were induced. It is usually so much better to wait unless there is a good medical reason to induce. Once I was in hospital with a woman who had insisted on an induction because she was so depressed with being pregnant, but she later regretted it. She was more depressed than before and now had an infant in special care as well.
As for full- term inductions, I would heartily second what the first contributor said. Artificially induced labors are so much more difficult to cope with. Most labors are painful but somehow the pain is more vicious and difficult to get on top of. It lacks the rhythm of the natural process. At least, it did for me.

I was induced with both of my children. My first pregnancy went so smoothly that I couldn't wait to do it again before I had even left the hospital. I had gestational diabetes with both children. Though I didn't have it, high blood pressure may also be another cause to induce labor. With my son, I had low amniotic fluid which the doctor's monitored 2 or more times a week. If it reaches and remains below a certain point, they may induce labor for that reason. It is always safest to push the pregnancy out as close to the due date as possible, but if it becomes medically necessary doctor's may choose to induce. There are many reasons why doctor's would choose to induce labor. If they think the child, or mother's, life or health may be at risk, then they will induce. Inducing labor is not much different from natural labor in that progress can happen in any stage and at any rate. I had two very different outcomes with induction so it varies from person to person and birth to birth.

It depends on when the discharge is occurring; if it is immediately after intercourse then it is just a combination of fluids from your and your partner's bodies, vaginal secretions and semen. If you are discharging days after intercourse, then that may be a sign of pregnancy. Check the link.

• It could be a number of things, like an STD or a vaginal yeast infection. You should definitely see your doctor about this. Good luck.

• Usually no. Most of the time this is just ejaculation leaving the body. But it could be something else depending on if the discharge is irritating or smells bad, So unless it is bothersome I wouldn't worry about it.

Ginger helps relieve nausea. Many women sip ginger ale or eat Ginger Snap cookies. If you do not like the taste of Ginger Snaps, buy ground ginger and put in your food when you are cooking, or you can fill gelatin capsules (get them at the drug store) with ground ginger and take like medicine (check with your doctor to be sure it is okay for you). There are also Ginger candies (often found in Asian markets) and Crystallized ginger in the spice section of the grocery store to eat like candy. Some women say that even just sniffing fresh ginger slices helps.

Chicken stock or broth can be made or bought canned and add quarter sized pieces of fresh ginger (start with four quarter sized round slices and then adjust by taste for more or less ginger flavor) and simmer the broth until the ginger slices have turned a darker color. You may also want to add some lemon grass stems for more flavor. Make this ahead and freeze in ice cube trays so you can make a cup in the microwave with one or two cubes whenever you feel the nausea.

If you like sweeter things, then make ginger tea with water and ginger slices plus honey (or sweetener or sugar) and a twist of lemon to sip. It can also be made ahead and kept in refrigerator to sip cold or reheat in the microwave. Honey is fine for moms-to-be to eat, you have developed the antibodies that are needed to be able to safely eat honey, but it is not something to give a child until at least one year old. Your unborn baby will not be harmed if you eat honey.

Heartburn and indigestion occurs generally in the first trimester and the last trimester. It's very common. The best thing you can do is to start eating smaller/lighter meals and not lie down for at least a half hour after eating, keeping head up on two pillows instead of flat. Many doctors recommend Tums to relieve acid indigestion. Or you could try some of the products for nausea that contain ginger, like Gingera. Ginger has known to help relieve the nausea and indigestion from morning sickness and indigestion in pregnancy, plus motion sickness and sea sickness. There are also wrist bands for sea sickness that use acupressure to stop nausea that many pregnant women have found helpful. Sniff or suck on a slice of lemon or eat soda crackers or saltines to help keep your blood sugar from being too low. Other foods many women suggest are: salty potato chips, pretzels, Popsicles, gelatin desserts, watermelon, sips of lemonade.

If you let foods cool from cooking temperatures to room temperature before serving, since foods have less aroma at that temperature than when hot.

See the related question below: "Why does eating a protein meal late at night prevent morning sickness?" Other contributors have said:

* There is always the "eat crackers before you get out of bed" thing. For me this did not work. I wore sea bands for most of my pregnancy and they worked pretty well. You can buy them in just about any drug store where they have motion sickness medicine. They are little stretchy bands with little plastic balls on them that you wear on your wrists. The little ball pushes something in your wrist that short circuits the message to your brain to be sick. They work really well. Other things that helped me were sucking on lemon slices (sounds awful, but really helps!) and eating dry Cheerios. I kept Cheerios next to my bed for months. Also try to eat them right before you go to sleep and if you get up during the night, try to eat a handful. This almost always prevented sickness the next morning. * Although they taste sour and not sweet, lemons actually have more sugar than many other sweeter tasting fruits. The sweet flavored foods often add to nausea in morning sickness, so that is why lemons can work so well. Some women find salty flavored foods are better. Cheerios, like saltine crackers, are another source of a fast acting carbohydrate that converts quickly in your body to raise your blood sugar, but does not taste too sweet. See the related question below about proteins and morning sickness.

* Many moms swear that ginger helps alleviate the nausea that comes with pregnancy. Eat anything with ginger in it, such as ginger cookies, hard ginger candy or crystallized ginger. Drinking ginger tea is also great, calming your stomach naturally. Just break a piece of fresh ginger root, grate and put in hot water. There are also ginger capsules sold today. Check with your doctor first to be sure that taking this supplement is okay for you. == == * Morning sickness can be prevented by eating plain crackers before even sitting up in bed. Crystallized ginger pieces are good to keep in your hand bag to prevent nausea, as a handy snack. Ginger tea and honey is also very effective. * If you dwell on the fact that you feel ill, you will continue to feel that way, try to distract yourself from it. * Avoid being at your PC for too long, the refresh flicker on the screen is known to cause morning sickness in some people. * Try yogurt, ice cream, apple sauce, and baked potatoes which are also great options. * If you don't like ginger, try a little apple cider vinegar in water with a little honey. This is also very effective. * Saltine crackers and 7-up. Leave some on the bedside table and nibble a few before you even get up. * I found ginger very effective, either plain ginger or ginger beer. A proper one though not ginger flavor soda.