Severe Morning Sickness May Mean Baby Will Be Extra Smart

Pregnant ladies, your weeks and weeks of chugging Gingerale, eating nothing but crackers, and feeling like you downed eight bottles of wine the night before MAY just pay off.

That’s right – a study out of Canada confirms that morning sickness is linked to intelligence in your unborn infant.

Sick now, smarts later

Researchers at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, found that mums who suffer from severe morning sickness during pregnancy tend to have kids with sharper minds.

They believe the pregnancy hormones related to morning sickness can actually have a positive effect on fetal brain development. A negative effect on your tummy, sure, but great for your baby! This is good news for nauseous mums, especially considering one of the biggest fears is that being so sick is actually harming bub. Not the case!

The study focused on 121 children between the ages of three and seven as well as their mothers who suffered from morning sickness during pregnancy.

Experts found that these children were more likely to have scored higher on IQ, memory and language skill tests.

“[The findings suggest that] nausea and vomiting in pregnancy is not harmful and in fact may enhance favourably children’s long-term [mental development],” lead researcher Dr Irena Nulman told Reuters Health.

Babies that wake up often also have extra smarts

This isn’t the first study that looks at intelligence in babies. Two parenting experts and professors have also found that there is a direct link between babies’ sleep and their intelligence too. Again, it’s good news for struggling parents – smarter babies wake up more.

According to both Peter Fleming and Professor Dacia F Narvaez, your baby may not be sleeping through the night because of his big baby brain.

One study showed that children who wake more at night (and have their needs met by their sleep-deprived parents) have “a greater conscience, more cognitive ability and less depression.”

Professor Fleming adds that babies are not designed to sleep for long periods of time and that there is actually a link between “very high levels of developmental and intellectual achievement and not sleeping throughout the night.”

So, there you go – severe morning sickness AND a baby that won’t sleep? You’ve hit the smart baby jackpot!