morning sickness smarter babies

 

If this bit of research is true, it's not necessarily great news for my kids....

A new study by Canadian researchers suggests that moms who spend part of their pregnancy nauseated and vomiting may have smarter babies.

Researchers in Toronto have discovered that morning sickness "appears to be linked to enhanced neurodevelopment of the fetus." While nausea has long been thought to indicate a healthy pregnancy -- and is linked to lower miscarriage rates -- this is the first study to look at the long-term cognitive development of the babies that result from those pregnancies.

The study looked at three groups of women -- those who experienced morning sickness and took a drug for it, those who had morning sickness and did not take the drug, and those who didn't experience morning sickness at all. Their kids were evaluated later at age three and again at age seven.

Other factors, such as mom's I.Q. and cigarette and alcohol consumption, were also taken into account.

Researchers found that kids from all three groups scored within normal intelligence ranges, but the children of moms with morning sickness scored higher on performance I.Q. and other intelligence markers.

And -- the "more severe the morning sickness, the more likely the children were to earn higher scores."

Pretty interesting, huh?

For ideas on dealing with the queasies, check out Cafe Kim's recent post on the best foods for morning sickness, and connect with moms in Pregnancy Questions and Concerns... Get Answers!

What's your experience with morning sickness? Do you have it kind of bad, beyond bad, or not really at all?