Hyperemesis Gravidarum (Morning Sickness X’s 100)
Tara Carpenter, NC, CPES.
Nutrition Consultant for people on Body Ecology Diet & Certified Placenta Encapsulation Specialist for new mothers in Vermont.
Originally published on February 24, 2017.
Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) is a rare, serious condition affecting 0.5–2.0% of pregnant women. This hard-to-spell (and say) word broken down is hyper=over-excessive/severe, emesis=vomiting, gravidarum=pregnancy. Put together hyperemesis gravidarum is severe nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.
If you have not experienced HG, consider yourself lucky. I had this condition three times. When people ask how that felt, I say “having HG is like having morning sickness multiplied by 100”. I could not drink more than a teaspoon of water at a time. I would wait three or more days to be able to visualize and then accept any kind of food into my mouth. Without being able to go to the Emergency Room for hydration and nutrition I wanted to curl up on the bathroom floor. No food could be cooked in our home for the duration of my sickness and watching t.v. made me feel on a ship in the ocean. If I craved a lobster roll I could eat three at once. The one food I could near always eat was hot chicken soup; I felt strong for two days straight, yet had to be freshly made (not frozen or canned) and with a squeeze of lemon. That is how picky my body became. I had never experienced anything so difficult to endure and my heart goes out to any woman in the midst of this horrible feeling.
Hyperemesis gravidarum is NOT morning sickness. Nor is it normal, mild, or temporary vomiting that some pregnant moms can have in the early months of pregnancy. If you have HG, you are in bed, on the floor, over the toilet, anywhere other than head up and eyes open. If you have HG it is impossible to read, drive, or move. Drinking more than a teaspoon of water makes you throw up, lifting your head and opening your eyes is a momentous occasion that takes ages of pre-thought and effort. You are in a place with a ways ahead to getting where you are going, seeing only a speck of light at the end of a long tunnel.
If you know someone with HG, help them. They need it. Consider them an invalid and do not downplay their feelings – they feel awful and don’t need the added pressure to buck up and act normal. Left untreated, HG can cause anemia, severe malnutrition, dehydration, hypoglycemia, and serious complications like fluid/electrolyte imbalances. Depression is often a secondary complication of HG.
You are not alone.
If you have HG, you are not alone no matter how alone you may feel. You can do this. You have what it takes. But you need help and all you can get. Ask for it. Pay for it if you can. I know it feels like you are 10 feet under (or that you’d like to be) but this too shall pass. For now, do all you can to find food you will eat and keep down. Go to ER as much as you are allowed to for hydration treatments, seek support from Facebook forums, get an “HG buddy” to trade woes with, try everything you have not tried.
Rick Simpson Oil
When I was pregnant, marijuana was taboo, let alone sold at recreational dispensaries. Now I hear how it helps many HG women feel better enough to eat and drink. Research into Rick Simpson Oil (RSO). Keep seeking. Here is a video I made about RSO. Whilst this prenatal condition is not cancer in and of itself, many women -including myself- sign a release form to take a medication meant for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy to stay hydrated and nourished. Had I known of RSO at the time, I would have hired someone to make that for me.
When you can’t
If you find you can’t keep being pregnant know that many of women in your boots have made the same decision. This is an important decision of the hardest kind. Having been in HG shoes, I understand. Find your goal. Set your eyes on that child and keep in the ring is what I did because that was my goal.
Support
After experiencing hyperemesis gravidarum three times, I have lived and learned it inside and out and devote myself to helping others with this awful condition. Sometimes I do this by writing; other times by phone or email support. One time I helped a woman in Vermont by dropping food and peppermint tea and helping her in various ways. There is a death kind of quiet in the home with a mom suffering HG. Please share this post because there is not enough help for women with HG.
If you know a woman in the throes of severe morning sickness – please help her. By doing so, you can stop a condition which, left to itself, can require hospitalization. Dehydration and becoming malnourished can occur after only 1-2 days of persistent vomiting. Watch for this and notify doctor. There can be underlying physical causes for severe vomiting during pregnancy. Please do not believe her vomiting is psychically based.
What I Ate With Severe Morning Sickness
Food That Helped My Hyperemesis Gravidarum
References
Bland, J. S., Costarella, L., Jones, D. S., Lerman, R. H., Levin, B., Liska, D., & Schmidt, M. (2004). Clinical Nutrition: A Functional Approach (2nd ed., pp.163-164). Gig Harbor, WA: Institute for Functional Medicine.
Campbell-McBride, N. MD. (2011). Gut and Psychology Syndrome. Soham, Cambridge; Medinform Publishing.
Davis, A. (1981). Let’s Have Healthy Children
Morell-Fallon, S. and Cowan, T. MD. (2013). The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby & Child Care. Washington DC: New Trends Publishing, Inc.
Murray, M. N.D. (2005). Healing Foods. New York, NY.: Atria Books.
Rothenberg, A. MD. Homeopathic Remedies During Labor & Delivery: Lecture 9 Notes
Shaw, W. (2013). The Morning Sickness Handbook.
Sister Zeus (1998). Wild Yam: An Herbal Contraceptive. Retrieved at https://www.sisterzeus.com/wildyam.htm
Wikipedia (2014). Retrieved at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperemesis_gravidarum
MommyPotamous (2012). The REAL Cause of Morning Sickness. Retrieved at https://www.mommypotamus.com/the-real-cause-of-morning-sickness/
