Pregnancy brings many challenges to the expectant mother and most of them are shrugged of without sparing a second thought. We can endure the tiredness, and the back pain.

And of course then there are the cravings and the inevitable weight gain that really makes us feel our best. But one of the worse conditions has to be morning sickness and boy would we do anything for a cure.

Although there is no medical backing for such things, ginger and peppermint seem to alleviate nausea and morning sickness for some women and other alternative remedies that have been handed down from generation to generation as ways to quell morning sickness.

These ancient remedies if there is such a thing include bananas, vitamin B, cloves, cola syrup, honey, ice, lemons and red raspberry leaf tea. But it goes without saying that before you try anything new (although it is always tempting), check with your physician first.

You could also try alternative therapies such as those acupressure bands that are worn on the wrist over a pressure point that sometimes helps alleviate morning sickness (and travel sickness funnily enough).

In the meantime though you’ll just have to grin and bear it unfortunately.

Stretch marks are a badge of honour that can be worn with pride after the seemingly epic 9 month battle we have to endure to bring those little bundles of joy into the world as our lives take on new meaning.

But do we have to endure these battle scars and is there something we can do about it?

Stretch marks are the result of the skin being pulled. This can occur in overweight people as well as pregnant mothers. The second layer of skin can also be damaged and the severity of the stretch marks will vary depending on how far the skin was pulled as well as the original condition of the skin.

Once the skin goes back to where it was originally either through having a baby or losing weight, those marks become more noticeable and fading them becomes a goal.

There are of course a number of differing methods in the market place and all we seem viable when you are trying to achieve this goal.

Various reams and lotions have been specifically developed to combat the effects and with most of these through regular use they can fade the stretch marks enough that they won’t be as noticeable, which is an ideal result.

Of course the temptation here is to spend as much as possible as the more expensive creams work best……so the label may tell you. Don’t believe everything you read as stretchmarks will fade naturally over time.

Cocoa butter is said to achieve good results and compared to some of the creams relatively inexpensive, which is great news now that you have an extra mouth (or more) to feed and clothe.

At the end of the day though the best cream is the one that works best for you and your skin type so don’t be shy and try a few.

Why is it that some women can give birth many times without any skin blemishes and yet others seem to be stretch mark magnets.

Obviously some women’s skin has more elasticity than others , but that’s no consolation if you are not one of those seemingly luck few that can grow to what seems sometimes like mammoth proportions and then shrink back to size almost as if the pregnancy never happened.

So for most stretch simply come with the territory and are symbol of motherhood and one of the many trails and tribulations that the female of the species seems destined to endure.

But is there anything we can do about it? Well luckily there is, although we can never entirely eradicate the marks, we can go some distance to lessening the notice ability of what s seems to be the inevitable battle scars of pregnancy.

So start slapping on the creams girls and see if we can make those suckers disappear.

So if the condition has been around as long as women how come nobody has come up with a cure yet? After all we have come up with cures to nearly all the common dieses known to man (or perhaps that’s the problem?).

Morning sickness like the common cold is going to be just one of those things that it will seem will never be conquered so is there any way to avoid it?

There are ways in which morning sickness can be managed (don’t you just hate that term) for example avoiding foods whose scents cause nausea and avoiding the fattier foods as well, which is all well and good if you don’t have a craving.

You can also try eating many small meals instead of three regular sized ones throughout the day.

Also you could try taking prenatal vitamins with food, drinking plenty of fluids between meals, and taking regular naps, which will allow the body to rest.

Easier said than done when the nesting instinct is in full flow, but hey it worth a try.

All of the mothers out there no doubt had ups and downs during their pregnancy but one condition that most tend to share is of course morning sickness.

Quite how this queasy feeling got its name I don’t know as many mothers will attest to being subject to morning sickness during all times of the day from morning till night.

So if everybody seems to get it there’s got to be a cure! Unfortunately not, although since it is such a widespread and common problem in pregnancy, there has been much research and study conducted related on how to best alleviate it. And if the medical profession do come up with an answer to this condition it will sure as hell make somebody rich.

But in the meantime try ginger and peppermint as mothers have reported that this seems to alleviate nausea and morning sickness for some.

Oh the joys of impending parenthood (but it will be worth it).