Feeling a little nauseous when you are pregnant is normal, but some pregnant women experience severe nausea for nine months. This extreme nausea is called hyperemesis gravidarium, HG for short. The cause of it is not yet known and what you can do about it has not yet been fully discovered. Unfortunately, it ruins a pregnancy period that you should be able to enjoy. Pregnant women with HG have a hard time. There is no real point in enjoying the pregnancy, it is a matter of survival. Until the baby is born.
Not a festive pregnancy but a nauseating one
- Hyperemesis gravidarium during pregnancy
- HG – extremely nauseous
- Cause unknown
- Dark room and low-stimulus environment
- Baby born from HG pregnancy
- ZEHG Foundation
- Treatment protocol for HG patient
- Closed group on Facebook
- Hospital and information
Hyperemesis gravidarium during pregnancy
Women who suffer from hyperemesis gravidarium have little opportunity to enjoy their pregnancy. They can sometimes vomit dozens, or even dozens, of times a day. They feel extremely nauseous, can barely eat and are barely able to do anything other than lie in bed. The women can dehydrate due to frequent vomiting and sometimes hospitalization is necessary and the woman has to be put on a drip.
In the first three months of pregnancy, almost every pregnant woman feels nauseous. At that stage, IPV is not yet considered. If the nausea persists and is extremely intense, it is referred to as HG.
HG – extremely nauseous
Hyperemesis gravidarium is simply called HG . The term comes from Latin. Hyper means above normal and emesis means nausea and vomiting. Gravidarum is Latin for pregnancy. In Dutch it means: ‘excessive vomiting during pregnancy’ . It is not known how many women suffer from it, but experts estimate it to be 0.5 to 2 percent of all pregnant women. This means that 2,000 to 5,000 women in the Netherlands suffer from it every year.
Kate Middleton
The most famous is Kate Middleton , wife of Britain’s Prince William. In December 2012, the Royal House of Great Britain announced the happy news about Kate’s pregnancy. At the same time, it was reported that the Duchess of Cambridge did not have an easy pregnancy. Middleton was diagnosed with HG. She gave birth to son George in 2013 after an extremely nauseous pregnancy. Kate raised awareness about the disease and scientists hope that this awareness will also free up more money for research and treatment.
Cause unknown
Professionals and the general public appear not to be very familiar with the condition. Doctors often think too lightly about it and refer to it as an ‘in between the ears’ issue. They look for a psychological cause, especially if the complaints are vague and common. The belief in a psychological cause was even taken to the point where IPV was considered a response by the pregnant woman to cut off the fetus or her husband. In Norway it was discovered that there are indeed physical causes, including heredity. If the mother has been nauseous during pregnancy, the daughter has a good chance of becoming nauseous during her pregnancy as well. Not so much because nausea is genetically determined, but because of lifestyle and its effects on health. Consider smoking, unhealthy eating and high weight.
Dark room and low-stimulus environment
For years, the treatment of nauseous pregnant women focused on removing stimuli. The women were placed in a dark room, in a low-stimulus environment. This would give the women some rest so that a normal diet could develop again. It was long thought that this was the best treatment method, but the experts are changing their mind. Nowadays, the darkroom is hardly used anymore. Yet there are still gynecologists who believe in a psychological cause and who think that women benefit from the low-stimulus environment.
Barbaric methods
There are known barbaric methods in which the woman is not allowed to receive visitors or even has to clean up her own vomit. The underlying idea is that if someone has to clean up their own vomit, you will unlearn vomiting.
Baby born from HG pregnancy
Babies born from HG pregnancies are more likely to have low birth weight, be small for gestational age, and may be born prematurely. Mothers who have experienced IPV are more likely to have children with attention problems. In this respect it is just like with the cause: more research needs to be done to be able to determine the causes and consequences with certainty and to determine the treatment.
ZEHG Foundation
The ZEHG Foundation sees nothing in the dark room and the ban on visitors. Their starting point is that you cannot avoid vomiting if you have HG. The ZEHG Foundation is there for women who suffer from HG. The foundation wants to offer women who suffer from morning sickness or hyperemesis gravidarum a listening ear, a place where they are understood. The foundation provides information and works to raise awareness of the condition so that there is more understanding. There is a website and a support center where pregnant women – and anyone looking for information – can find information. The foundation also gives researchers the opportunity to present their research on the website or place calls for women to participate in a study.
ZEHG was founded in 2012 by experienced experts, women who have had the condition themselves. They know better than anyone how much misunderstanding there is about HG and how little information was available about it.
Treatment protocol for HG patient
The ZEHG Foundation is working towards creating a treatment protocol for HG patients. That is why the foundation is committed to raising awareness in the medical world. The physicians will have to create, endorse and implement the protocol. According to ZEGH, it was shown years ago that there are physical causes at the root of IPV.
HG can be life-threatening
HG can be a life-threatening disease. Physicians but also employers must recognize this. Too often, employers sit in the doctor’s shoes and determine that pregnancy sickness should disappear after three months. The circle of family and friends surrounding the pregnant woman must also be aware that the woman cannot do anything about the fact that she is so nauseous.
Closed group on Facebook
The ZEHG Foundation now has a closed Facebook group , where pregnant women who are extremely nauseous can tell their story and hear from others about how they fared. They can draw support and comfort from that. The foundation has also set up a buddy system. A pregnant woman with HG can then contact someone who understands her by telephone or email.
If you are pregnant and feel extremely nauseous and are not sure whether this is normal, you can contact us via the websites www.steunpunthg.nl or www.zehg.nl or www.zwangerenmisselijk.nl.
Hospital and information
Hospitals provide information about IPV through a brochure. Nausea has a number of causes, of which changes in hormone balance are the most important. Furthermore, a multiple pregnancy or a molar pregnancy – the embryo has died at an early stage – can be the cause of pregnancy vomiting. Stress can have an amplifying influence on vomiting during pregnancy, as can problems from the past that ‘occur’ during pregnancy.
