I must admit I'm not much good at
keeping up with the news of the Duchess of Cambridge, mainly because
I don't have a TV and I actively avoid news, magazines and so on (weird I know!).
Having said that I am aware that she has managed to get out and
about, been on holiday and is restarting official work soon... people just love telling me what she has been up to (weird I know!). I am so
thrilled for her that she is not still debilitated by Hyperemesis
Gravidarum (HG) and I hope so much that she is managing to enjoy the wonder
and beauty of pregnancy... something I never managed to achieve
during the total 27 months I've been pregnant for.
Luckily, a lot of women, including the
Duchess it seems, do recover from HG in the second trimester and go
on to have happy and healthy pregnancies. But sadly many women do not
and HG can last for the entire 9 months, making the birth and
breastfeeding more challenging from the exhaustion and lack of
reserves following such intense illness. Personally I was one of the lucky ones who found giving birth and painful breastfeeding a walk in the park after the relentless nightmare of HG. However, the extent to which HG can
impact on delivery, recovery and breastfeeding is unknown because no
one has every studied it. But recent research that has come out in
Sweden has shown a significant link between persistent HG
(demonstrated by admission for the condition in the 2nd
trimester) and placental problems and low for gestational age babies.
I'm not saying this because I want to scare any of the current
sufferers who may be reading this or anyone thinking of trying
again... that's the last thing I want to do. Rather, I am trying to
highlight the need for further research into this little understood
condition and it's complications. Furthermore, the notion that it's
just unpleasant for the mum during pregnancy but resolves without
lasting effects once the pregnancy is over is yet another myth that needs
expelling. I know so many women who are having long lasting
problems which are clearly a result of severe HG, such as gut
motility problems, Hiatus Hernia, LA grade B oesophagitis, Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder, emetophobia, flash backs and so on. And yet there is
no research about it! Many of these 'side-effects' could be prevented
if the HG was prevented from becoming so severe with effective, early
treatment.
To that end, this year, my focus for my
work with Pregnancy Sickness Support is going to be on Health Care
Professional education and working towards research projects. We will
soon have a survey on our website which we will need sufferers to
fill out, we hope the results will help us apply for further research
and highlight specific areas in need of further investigation. We are
also holding a national Pregnancy Sickness and Hyperemesis Gravidarum
Conference for Healthcare Professionals in September this year and I
will have the on-line booking form available soon. We also have our
new leaflets about Medications and Treatments available and I have
recently written an article for a nursing journal.
It's all rather exciting that so much
is happening in the world of Hyperemesis Awareness Raising and I must
admit it is thanks to the high profile of a recent sufferer that so
many more newspapers and journals are taking an interest in the
condition. I have just submitted an article to a practice nursing
paper which I'm pretty sure would not have been requested 4 months
ago!
