Last week it was Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) Awareness Day – a day I didn’t know existed until a relative of mine told me about it at a family lunch. As I held her gorgeous baby she told me about the immense suffering she experienced while pregnant with her child. Even though her baby is now eight months old, the scars of the experience are still fresh in her mind.
The Hyperemesis Australia website has a number of who suffered through HG during their pregnancies.
The comedian Amy Schumer, who had HG during her pregnancy in 2018, ended up last year about her experience with the illness. She chronicles, "hours before a show, puking into a plastic bag, out the door of a car, into the toilet bowl at 3am; a day before she’s to tape Growing at a comedy club in New York, she’s in the back of another car on the way to the ER, dehydrated and retching."
Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Sussex, too famously . She even when she was pregnant with Prince George. how, "It was definitely a challenge. Not just for me, but also for your loved ones around you...William didn’t feel like he could do much to help. It’s hard for everyone to see you suffering.”
Listening to women talking about their experiences made me realise that my morning sickness during my third pregnancy was nothing compared to what they went through.
Hyperemesis Gravidarum affects . Symptoms of HG include repeated vomiting, constant nausea, weight loss and dehydration. Treatment usually involves hospitalisation as well as the administration of anti-nausea medication.
found that many pregnant women were being denied medications to treat severe nausea and vomiting, with one in four of the respondents in the survey saying they were denied anti-nausea medication.
SBS Voices spoke to who leads the Reproductive and Perinatal Pharmacoepidemiology Research Group at Flinders University, about why some doctors and pharmacists may be denying women the treatment they need.
“The underpinning reasons for the observed behaviours have not been well explored but there are a couple of possible reasons why doctors (and pharmacists) refuse or are reluctant to prescribe/recommend anti-nausea medications," Dr Dr Grzeskowiak says.
"The first relates to the fact that many anti-nausea medications are not specifically licensed for use in pregnancy or carry warnings about use in pregnancy, meaning doctors may refuse to prescribe medications out of concerns for foetal safety and associated medico-legal concerns.”
Dr Grzeskowiak admits this could be linked to “potentially insufficient levels of awareness of the importance of early identification and treatment of severe nausea and vomiting or hyperemesis in easing women’s suffering.”
He adds, "there is still limited awareness of clinical practice guidelines and evidence to support the safety and effectiveness of various treatments," which means many women today are being denied medication that could ease their suffering.
It doesn't help of course that there isn't a definitive test for hyperemesis or even standard criteria for diagnosis.
It doesn't help of course that or even standard criteria for diagnosis. However, there are out there for pregnant women suffering. As we learn more about the illness and talk about it, the growing awareness will mean pregnant women who need treatment will no longer be denied it.
But one thing I learned through my own three pregnancies is that you often have to advocate for yourself to get the care you need. It’s important that each person seeks out a medical professional to help them get the appropriate treatment they need because a healthy, safe and relatively comfortable pregnancy is something all women deserve.
