Playing With / Morning Sickness

Basic Trope: Nausea and vomiting during (especially) the first trimester of pregnancy, as a result of pregnancy-related hormones.

• Straight: Alice misses her period, but it's her feeling nauseous first thing in the morning that tips her off before the pregnancy test does.
• Exaggerated:
  • Alice is nauseous all the time, and this doesn't go away as the pregnancy progresses, or she has a very severe case of it.
  • Alice's morning sickness starts before she even knows she's pregnant (possibly as soon as she conceives)
• Downplayed: Alice feels a little nauseous throughout her pregnancy, though not enough to drive her to the toilet.
• Justified:
  • Alice's hormones are getting all wacky, and this is how her body reacts.
  • In evolutionary terms, it may be nature's way of protecting the baby from toxins accidentally ingested by Alice.
• Inverted:
  • Alice is pregnant, but does not suffer from even a little nausea. In fact, she has a huge appetite for the weirdest of things.
  • Alice is pregnant, but it's not her upper digestive tract that's giving her problems so much as her lower.
• Subverted:
  • Alice finds out she's pregnant, and feels a little nauseous at one point, but that's as far as it goes.
  • Alice feels nauseous while pregnant, but it's for another reason.
  • Alice is faking a pregnancy (to get Bob to stay with her), and has made herself throw up to perpetuate the illusion.
  • Alice vomits, but it's due to food poisoning rather than pregnancy.
• Double Subverted: But she vomits once or twice later, or experiences other types of pregnancy-related discomfort.
• Parodied:
  • Alice hasn't left the bathroom since the beginning of her pregnancy.
  • Alice waterfall vomits constantly, like a nasty vomit-spewing fountain as soon as she finds out she's pregnant.
  • Alice starts puking as soon as she's done having sex with Bob.
  • Bob gets morning sickness, even though he isn't pregnant.
• Zig Zagged:
  • Some pregnant women are constantly vomiting, some are only occasionally sick, some are nauseous but don't vomit, and some never have stomach trouble.
  • Alice exhibits an Incurable Cough of Death for several episodes before the vomiting starts, as a Red Herring to make people attribute it to the fatal illness she obviously has. After The Reveal, she mentions the cough to the doctor, and he dismisses it as a cold.
• Averted: Alice doesn't experience stomach trouble.
• Enforced: Small Reference Pools, Truth in Television.
• Lampshaded: "You OK, Alice?"
• Invoked: Alice is pregnant, and Bob is cooking fish (which smells very strong to Alice).
• Exploited: Charlie decides to poison Alice's food the night before so that she thinks she's pregnant and relishes in the prank he has set up.
• Defied:
  • Alice takes ginger-root capsules or other medication/herbal remedy that won't hurt the baby.
  • Bob knows that strong smells (like grilling salmon) smell stronger to Alice than normal, and tries to avoid producing triggers.
  • Alice has an abortion.
• Discussed: "Come on, Alice. We both know you and Bob have been having fun for a while and now you're throwing up in the morning. You know what that means?"
• Conversed: "Is throwing up for no reason normal?" "If your pregnant, yes. Otherwise, no."
• Implied: Alice is nauseous, but her pregnancy is not mentioned until later on.
• Played For Laughs: Alice running to find a place to throw up in... to The Benny Hill Show theme song.
• Played For Drama: Alice can't keep anything down, and she's dehydrated, which threatens her health and her pregnancy.
• Deconstructed: Alice refuses to believe that morning sickness means she is pregnant and is deliberately in denial of it. She becomes paranoid instead that she contracted some rare disease.
• Reconstructed: Eventually, she realizes that she's simply nervous about being pregnant and that she just didn't know how to cope with it at first. Her friends help her come to terms with morning sickness as she prepares herself for the next nine months.

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