Women who suffer morning sickness during pregnancy may be more likely to have a child with a high IQ. Even worse (or maybe not) a study reported by The Journal of Paediatrics shows that severe morning sickness is a “significant predictor of higher scores.”
“Our findings suggest an association between morning sickness and improved neurodevelopment in the offspring,” says Dr Irena Nulman, of The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. Britain’s Daily Telegraph notes previous studies have suggested an early protective benefit of morning sickness, however the long-term effects had not been directly investigated before.
“I guess that’s a small comfort if you’re feeling really sick,” notes Laura Vanderkam at Gifted Exchange. I predict an outbreak of bragging in the form of complaints among the competitive parent set. “Oh, I can’t believe how sick I was this morning…”
Interesting. Anecdotally, all of the women I know who had 9 months’ worth of horrible morning sickness did have very bright children. But since the kids in our family’s social circle tend to be on the brighter side in general, I presume the pertinent information would be whether the rate of severe morning sickness is any higher than average (I have no idea).
Morning sickness is annoying, but I always viewed it as a sign that things were going right–the proper hormones were being released, and my baby was being given the best chance possible to thrive. The trick is getting proper nutrition when you feel like vomiting much of the time. All three of my kids, by the way, are gifted and talented, but maybe that’s because I am–or maybe because I breastfed them, or maybe because smarter parents just do things right.