My Experience of Hyperemesis Gravidarum as a first and second time mum
So, as a first time mum we hear a lot about the first 12 weeks of pregnancy being really rough due to nausea and sickness. However I wasn’t expecting any of what was to come over the next weeks and month’s right up until giving birth!! When I was first pregnant, I didn’t start with any sickness or nausea until the 6 week mark. At first, I saw this as a rite of passage, that I was actually pregnant, and this was a good sign that things were now starting to happen. There was no history of any severe sickness due to pregnancy in the family, so early on I wasn’t too concerned. I remember my husband buying me those sea bands and getting me some ginger biscuits to snack on, unfortunately without making any difference. I found the nausea part of it all the hardest, as it hit me as soon as I woke up.
I managed to get to the 12 week mark which was at Christmas, and I remember that I couldn’t take part in many family activities etc. as I just felt so sick all the time. The thought of food at Christmas just made it even worse and I was really exhausted constantly. I did go to the early pregnancy unit to discuss the sickness and nausea but they just put me on Cyclizine which is used as a first line medication. At that point I was told that it is completely normal to feel this way, and the nausea should start subsiding past the 12 week mark, but it never did! Even the smell of any shower gel, cleaning products and the dishwasher caused me to vomit, it was just awful. I was completely alone in something that came out the blue and very few people understood, even health care professionals!
I was intermittently off work as I found it so hard to concentrate and kept needing the bathroom. Fortunately in one sense, at the time I worked in the NHS, so there was more support with having to be off. I was in a job where I couldn’t just dash to be sick, I had patients with booked appointments which definitely made it trickier to function with some normality. I continued to work until I was 28 weeks, obviously I would have continued longer, but this certainly wasn’t an option. I was continually sick on average of 5 times a day, and this was sustained right the way through. The bathroom became part of my life, and numerous times I just remember crying and sitting on the floor. I approached the GP’s on a number of occasions, but because I had no ketones in my urine, then nothing was needed to be done! I was made to feel like I was making a fuss about nothing and in the process I felt utterly hopeless! Now I had come across hyperemesis back in 2012 when I heard Jeremy Vine discuss it on the radio, because Kate Middleton had suffered with it when she was pregnant with George. For me it was never officially diagnosed under the medical professionals, but I would say for my first pregnancy, it was on the moderate side if it. It continued until the actual day my daughter was born. I looked forward to the birth because I felt like something had to be positive to come out of it. I had done hypnobirthing classes, and I would say that really helped keep me focused on the end outcome. Then just like magic, as soon as she was out, the whole feeling of nausea and all the sickness just disappeared. As soon as we were out of hospital, I went straight to McDonalds to have a Big Mac meal. I’ve got to say, it tasted amazing!
So round two came, and I was pregnant again just over 2 years later. I wasn’t sure what to expect but did think that it couldn’t be as bad again, but how wrong was I!!! This time, the debilitating nausea started at 3 weeks pregnant, and the whole experience was so much worse! Again I was trying to work, but could hardly get out of bed. I couldn’t even stand bright lights, I just wanted to lie in a dark room and disappear. I was searching where I could get help, as I knew this had to be HG again, and I found pregnancy sickness support. There definitely was a guilt element involved, as I felt I should be grateful that at least I was pregnant. However, I remember phoning them from my car on the way to do a home visit to do a patient’s feet. I was literally in such a state, but I needed to talk to someone, and I have to say they were absolutely fantastic to talk to!! They understood exactly what I was going through, and I remember just feeling so relieved that someone actually got it!
Following on from that phone call, they even emailed me with a whole list of treatments to discuss with the GP or with a consultant at the hospital and what to ask for. They even sent all the new Green top guidance produced by the Royal College of obstetricians and gynaecologists on how to manage HG in community and hospital. They even had a forum open for pregnant women also going through it. They were a fabulous support throughout my whole pregnancy, and I am forever grateful that I found them!
Shortly after I had been in contact with Pregnancy Sickness Support, I was booked in for a scan at 7 weeks due to the HG in case it was a multiple pregnancy. Fortunately everything was looking well with the baby and I managed to speak to a consultant at the hospital following the scan about HG. I said that I had been in contact with pregnancy sickness support, and what they had advised. She suggested I therefore try Ondansetron which is used as a third line of treatment if none of the previous medications had worked. I had read about the medication and the study into its effectiveness and side effects and I was willing to give it a go, after all I was desperate to try anything.
The medication took the edge of the nausea slightly, but I was continuing to still vomit many times a day and anything I ate came straight back up. I continued to be off work as I just couldn’t function and another 3 weeks later, the only thing I could keep down just about was coke. The smell of the dishwasher or anything clean made me instantly vomit, and I couldn’t even stand any shower gel etc. I just had to was with plain water. My parents were so worried they took me to the GP’s. My pulse was well over 100 and my lips were dry. They tested me for ketones and said these were negative, so I had to push for them to send me to the hospital. At this point I was about 12 weeks pregnant, and this was the one of the lowest points that I felt. They did put me on a drip, and I have to say for a brief time this made me feel so much better!
I continued feeling very unwell and had to give up work fully at around 18 weeks. It was impossible to do my job and cope with the constant nausea and vomiting. I was recommended by someone in the forum group to see if I could be seen by a consultant at Liverpool Women’s hospital called Joanne Topping. This was to see if there was any further management for HG and how it could be controlled better as I was seriously considering a termination at 20 weeks. Every day was just so horrendous, and the thought of walking up each morning experiencing the same symptoms was just relentless. Anyway, I went to Liverpool Women’s, and saw a doctor there and I told him everything that had gone on and asked if I could be referred to this specific consultant. I will never forget his words which were ‘don’t expect miracles as there aren’t any, so don’t go chasing rainbows!!’ He then proceeded to laugh in my face. I just couldn’t believe someone like that in the medical profession could be so disrespectful of what I was going through and who had absolutely no idea what I felt!!! I was so disappointed as I thought with it being a specific women’s hospital, there might have been more empathy, but no.
I never heard back from the referral to see this female consultant for the rest of the pregnancy, but I knew that if I could manage by being hydrated now and then, maybe this would get me through. I continued on the ondansetron medication which sometimes I still struggled to keep down, but it was better than nothing. I fought my corner when things got so bad, and demanded for dehydration in urgent care on a few more occasions, but it was a really struggle to get it. Very few medical professionals were used to dealing with HG and no one was aware of new guidelines that had come out the previous year.
I continued as I was and just became use to the nausea and vomiting each day, but the first 20 weeks of it all were definitely the worse! I had an amazing birth using hypnobirthing like my previous birth, and this was definitely the best outcome of the whole process of pregnancy. I would 100% give birth any day over suffering with HG! Within 4 days after Gabriel was born, I was off out celebrating having afternoon tea in a lovely cafe with my husband and it tasted absolutely amazing after 9 months of complete hell.
So my advice would be that if you are suffering from this, then there is help out there. Pregnancy Sickness Support (PSS) were fantastic and absolutely got what I was going through. Awareness needs to be raised more amongst health professionals that this can be dangerous for pregnant women. Unfortunately its very much misunderstood, and passed off as what is to be expected. Without a doubt, hypnobirthing gave me that focus that I very much needed. It got me to the end of the 9 months, and it has always been the best thing that I have ever done!
