Bounty

Medicines and home remedies are sadly unlikely to give pregnant women any relief from morning sickness, according to a new report.

Health experts, who reviewed 27 studies involving more than 4,000 women up to 20 weeks pregnant, claim there is no safe and reliable cure for the condition.

Nearly half of all pregnant women experience symptoms such as vomiting and nausea, particularly in the first three months.

But anti-sickness pills and treatments such as acupuncture, vitamin B and ginger have little or no effect in easing the symptoms, the researchers said. They added that insufficient data and inconsistent results in many of the trials make it difficult to arrive at any strong conclusions.

There was scant evidence for ginger as a remedy and in some cases it even caused side-effects such as heartburn, they said. Evidence about the effectiveness of vitamin B6, antihistamines and antiemetic (anti-vomiting) drugs was also very limited.

Women concerned about the effect of drugs on their unborn child have increasingly been turning to alternative treatments, the experts said.

However, they argued there is little evidence these therapies work and they tend to be less well regulated than pharmacological interventions.

Six studies on the role of acupressure and two on acupuncture resulted in no significant benefits for the women treated, the review found.

Copyright Press Association 2010