Morning Sickness...

I would like to meet the person who coined the phrase “morning sickness.” The following depiction is how I imagine such a silly phrase made its way into the pregnancy world...

Ages ago, in a far off land there sat a scholarly man positioned under an apple tree, as they were often found, pondering the meaning of life. His mind wandered to the blessed event of pregnancy. He thought to himself, “what a magical time for women, if only we had words to describe the wonderful events a pregnant woman experiences.” “I am a learned man of many books; I think I shall be the creator of said words.”

At that very moment a large red apple fell from the luscious tree onto the hollow head of the man. The very words with which he thought perfect to describe these events fell out of his noggin with the thud of an apple. The words he once knew to describe any part of a day were gone in an instant, except for one word “morning.” Being the stubborn learned man he was, he thought nothing was wrong with his vocabulary. And as the story tells, this man was educated so many listened to his words.

You see, on that unique day under the apple tree this very man coined the phrase “morning sickness,” to describe one event in a pregnant woman’s life. Little did he know the expectations these little words held for many newly pregnant women around the world. Many anticipated “morning sickness,” when to their surprise they received “all day sickness,” or “all night sickness.” Where this man is today no one will know. Some say that if a pregnant woman visits the very apple tree where this man sat she just might here a sorrowful apology.