Morning Sickness

Paper Summary:

This paper presents the physiological symptoms that occur to pregnant women who suffer from morning sickness. The paper analyzes research on this topic carried out by M. Profet in "Pregnancy Sickness as Adaptation," which suggests that pregnancy sickness represents a lowering of the usual human threshold of tolerance to toxins in order to compensate for the extreme vulnerability of the embryo to toxins during organogenesis, the period of maximum susceptibility to toxins.

From the Paper:

"Pregnancy sickness is commonly referred to as morning sickness. It is often defined as a set of symptoms that occur in some women during the first trimester of pregnancy. Women with pregnancy sickness may experience food aversions, nausea, and vomiting (Profet, 1992). Profet argued that these symptoms of pregnancy evolved during the course of human evolution to protect the embryo against maternal ingestion of toxins abundant in natural foods. She suggested that pregnancy sickness represents a lowering of the usual human threshold of tolerance to toxins in order to compensate for the extreme vulnerability of the embryo to toxins during organogenesis, the period of maximum susceptibility to toxins."

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