The implications of the condition are:
Use of medication throughout the
pregnancy to slow the vomiting and
reduce the nausea – an anti-emetic
commonly used by Chemotherapy
patients. There will be regular
hospital stays for rehydration. If these
prove ineffective, steroids will be
recommended, but like all options,
there can be side effects for the
mother and baby. If treatment
doesn’t work, you are looking at
spending the whole pregnancy in
hospital, drinking through a drip, and
receiving nutrients via a feeding tube
– in some cases one inserted into the
jugular bypassing the stomach.
And if none of these work? They say
in rare cases, they have to look at
saving both the mother and baby’s
lives by delivering early – some as
early as 26 weeks gestation.
All you can do is look at them in
disbelief. How is it possible that
pregnancy can be so natural for most
women in this world, yet at the same
time has the potential for putting you
on a path that in the past has
resulted in death?
5
Personally, I consider myself lucky. My
HG lasts for about seven months then
changes to your average morning
sickness – I vomit just once a day with
constant nausea until the end. I have
taken the drugs, to the open disgust of
some people, and most of the time I
feel as if they’re ineffective because I
still end up in hospital. What I really
want them to do is stop the torture
altogether, but then I would feel as if I
were just welcoming death.
But you know what? This is the fourth
time I have lived through Hyperemesis
Gravidarum. And you know why?
Because in the end, there is no prize
more worth it.
Until then, let’s not forget that
Princess Kate did not suffer from
“acute morning sickness”. She suffered
in HG hell.
Felicity Lenehan is a writer and
blogger on all things lifestyle (you
can find her musings on
motherhood here - http://mummyduck.blogspot.com.au/) and has
survived Hyperemesis Gravidarum
four times.