Can an app reduce morning sickness?
Up to 20 per cent of pregnant women take anti-nausea medication. Would eating differently have been enough? When is it so serious that the woman needs to go to hospital?
Watch a webinar about morning sickness, medication and a newly developed app.
You can watch the entire webinar at the bottom of this article.
Nausea and vomiting? Unfortunately, 80-90 per cent of pregnant women experience some form of stomach upset.
‘As healthcare professionals, we should be aware of how troublesome morning sickness can be,’ says research fellow Elin Ngo at the University of Oslo.
Ngo has been involved in developing and researching the effect of the app ‘MinSafeStart’. The app works like a diary for pregnant women. By documenting how nauseous they feel every day, they will receive customised advice on diet and lifestyle.
'The advice can include remembering to drink plenty of fluids, eat small meals often, and rest and avoid spicy foods. The app also provides information about available medicines that can be used. It will notify you if it is necessary to contact a healthcare professional,’ says Ngo.
The app is a patient-centred decision-making tool. By learning about outcomes, risks, pros and cons, women will be empowered to make their own informed choices and engage in discussions with healthcare professionals about the treatment of morning sickness.
'The goal is to prevent severe morning sickness. At the same time, we will reduce the use of medication and the need for hospitalisation or sick leave,’ says Ngo.
An international and standardised nausea scoring system (the Pregnancy-Induced Nausea Quantification Score) is used to classify the reported symptoms.
Recording
You can download the podcast to your mobile on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Podbean. Search for ‘Norwegian Centre for E-health Research’.