Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Unisom Morning Sickness

Question:
I was talking with my doc today about morning sickness and an upcoming trip (I leave Thurs) and he suggested I take Unisom to deal with the nausea. I'm really leary of taking anything, and am wondering if anyone else has ever tried this and how effective it was.

Answer:
*There is no B-6 in Unisom*. The ingredient that counters nausea is Doxylamine Succinate. This is the same medication previously marketed as Bendectine in the 70's and 80's( I believe that Bendectine did contain vit B6). Much to the dismay of many women and doctors, the pharm company decided to remove Bendectine from the market in effort to avoid defending itself against costly litigation. Some people claimed the drug caused birth defects, although, no case ever proved Bendectine was at fault and no court awards were ever made.( so far as I know). My OB/Gyn told me about Unisom and left it up to me to decide. After reviewing the literature I decided to use it. It worked very well for me and my babies were fine(I never doubted they wouldn't be). It is unfortunate that this type of baseless claim can cause a manufacturer to remove an effective product from the market out of fear of having to pay the costs of defending itself, even though the claims are unfounded. It's not much different than the tylenol scare a few years ago, and many other products that mysteriously dissappear from the market. My mother took Bendectine for *9 months* when she was preggers with me. Claims it was a wonder drug. Any time she quit, the puking started up again. It had unisom, B6, and a GI antispasmotic in it (not thought to be the active ingredient), and Sheryl's story below of it's withdrawl is pretty much how mom described it to me. I did some research when I got pregnant and had decided I'd mix my own soup if I needed it, but fortunately nature has been kind to me and I didn't need to. Again, do a little research and decide *for yourself*. It is encouraging that doctors are at least considering to offer women choices for nausea again... many will only admit to knowing about Bendectine when you threaten you are going to make it for yourself and they might as well suggest a dose. Part of this may be withdrawal from the Vitamin B6, though. I was taking Bendectin through the 8th month with one of my pregnancies, and was in despair because the same thing happened, but the doctor told me I needed to stop taking it or the baby might go through withdrawal at birth...so I asked another mom, and she said to cut four pills in unequal halves, take one a day starting with the largest and working to the smallest. In subsequent pregnancies, I had the same problems if I missed a dose of B6, and I also did the same pill-cutting trick to wea myself off of it around 6 months or so. BTW, if anyone wants to use doxylamine succinate, Walmart sells their house brand at less than half the cost of brand-name Unisom.