Tired of morning sickness? Well, take heart, for chances are that your unborn kid will have a high IQ.
Irena Nulman and colleagues at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, have concluded that women who suffer morning sickness during pregnancy may be more likely to have a bright child.
The findings, published online in The Journal of Paediatrics and reported by New Scientist magazine, show that the severity of the sickness is a significant predictor of higher scores.
To reach the conclusion, researchers contacted 120 women who years earlier had called a morning sickness hotline. Thirty did not have morning sickness, but the researchers asked the rest to recall the severity of their sickness, and gave the children of all the women, now aged between 3 and 7, a standard intelligence test.
Those whose mothers had nausea and vomiting during pregnancy were more likely to get high scores than those whose mothers did not.
Scientists believe that the sickness could be a by-product of changes in the levels of certain hormones, known as HCG (human chronic gonadotropin) and thyroxine, during pregnancy.
These fluctuations help the body to ensure that a woman's placenta grows properly, delivering vital nutrients to her baby.
