Any historical references/information about women suffering from morning sickness?

Hello, this is a great question! It isn't something I'd usually study but I've done some research for you and I hope this answers your question.

When was morning sickness first reported and how common was it?

The Greeks were the first to report morning sickness approximately 4,000 years ago, yet it was rarely studied throughout most of the rest of history due to the stigma that surrounded it, and the patriarchal nature of doctors. Remember, women were banned from being educated at a high level until fairly recently in most countries throughout the world, and even professions such as nursing were seen as masculine until the 19th century. Therefore, it is unsurprising so little research was done into morning sickness as, put simply, it did not affect men, who were the dominant, if not exclusive, medical professionals.

Why does morning sickness occur and how did this impact early civilisations?

An article which delves into the specifics of the food revolution that permits the current diet women follow during pregnancy, known is Thomas D. Holland and Michael J. O'Brien's "On Morning Sickness and the Neolithic Revolution" (Current Anthropology, December 2003)

Their explanation for morning sickness (also known as Nausea and Vomiting in Pregnancy, NVP) is that

"NVP protects the fetus primarily from secondary compounds produced by plants as defen- sive agents. These compounds contain teratogenic and abortifacient chemicals, but an evolved tendency to avoid these agents or to expel them through vomiting reduces the incidence of fetal mortality. In Profet’s model, NVP first evolved during the Pleistocene (ca.11,000 years ago) to discourage “first-trimester pregnant women from experimenting with novel toxic foods, in favor of incurring short-term nutritional costs and sus- taining viable embryos” (1988:180). To this end, “periods of scarcity would have provided the greatest selection pressures for pregnancy sickness.”

Essentially, that morning sickness came about as human diets evolved to protect the foetus and force women to avoid foods that had toxins with the potential to harm the unborn child. Prior to widespread refrigeration, this is something that was highly important

The article explores the adaptation of human diets that became

"carbohydrate-rich: potatoes in South America, maize in Middle America, starchy seeds in the American Midwest, cereal grains in the Near East, and rice in Southeast Asia."

As women experience morning sickness, they require easily-digestible food and carbohydrates provide this. It's similar to the diet recommended when one suffers nausea, plain toast, rice etc. Furthermore, whereas meat and vegetables may rot and cause food poisoning, carbs do not and thus are safe for women to consume.

What inference was made from women suffering from morning sickness?

Samuel M. Flaxman and Paul W. Sherman's article "Morning Sickness: A Mechanism for Protecting Mother and Embryo" (The Quarterly View of Biology, 2000) provides explanations as to why morning sickness occurs, how it has been studied and what it has historically been understood as meaning

Morning sickness has never been associated with risk in pregnancy, a study by Irving (1940), found that

"only six of our 225 cases [of pernicious vomiting] miscarried-a frequency of only one in 37.5 cases, as contrasted with the usualexpectancy in pregnancy of one in every five or six."

Irving did not study morning sickness as most women experience it, but a severe form of it known as hyperemesis gravid arum, (which is what The Duchess of Cambridge suffered during her pregnancies, forcing her to cancel several public engagements). Nevertheless, these statistics actually present a highly positive outcome ratio in pregnancies where women experience morning sickness.

I don't know if there's a particular place/time you're interested in with regards to pregnancy, but I found an interesting book chapter on how pregnancy related illnesses were viewed in the Antebellum (Pre-Civil War) American South, from Marli F. Weiner and Mazie Hough's book "Sex, Sickness and Slavery: Illness in the Antebellum South" White, middle class women were often prevented from doing physical activities that could harm them or their unborn child and their husbands were often fiercely protective of them.

Interestingly, pregnancy and childbirth were seen as the only physical conditions that could impact a woman's emotional state and it was viewed as an "experience".

A series of contemporary letters show how women's emotions were influenced by pregnancy, and this may have made them more anxious, causing physical reactions such as vomiting. Indeed, many women were fearful of dying during their pregnancies and this would again make them susceptible to illness.

A Southern woman named Frances Bumpas wrote:

“Have not felt very well this week, which has made me somewhat sad.” On another occasion she wrote, “I am not well & have been indulging in gloomy foreboding, but feel- ing this to be wrong, I have endeavoured to recover my wonted cheerfulness.” Such levels of self-awareness during illness were rare; more often, sick people refused or were unable to recognize the ways in which their physical experiences transformed them."

Interesting that this aspect of understanding pregnancy was fairly evolved for its time!

Hope this answer helped, let me know if there's something I didn't cover or there is a particular country/time you were interested in!

Bibliography:

Samuel M. Flaxman and Paul W. Sherman, "Morning Sickness: A Mechanism for Protecting Mother and Embryo" The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 75, No. 2 (Jun., 2000), pp. 113-148

Heather Munro Prescott, "A Second Revolution in Birth Control" from The Morning After: A History of Emergency Contraception in the United States (Rutgers University Press. 2011)

Marli F. Weiner and Mazie Hough, "The Unexamined Body" from Sex, Sickness, and Slavery: Illness in the Antebellum South
(University of Illinois Press. 2012)