Calling all HSP and HG Ladies!

I have suddenly wondered about the correlation between Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) and Highly Sensitive People (HSP). I am so sensitive to many stimuli – I don’t enjoy driving at night, for example, because I am dazzled by the lights, and of course I also have Misophonia. I am wondering if those of us that are HSP are more predisposed to suffering with HG – it certainly makes a lot of sense to me!

Therefore, I have decided to do my first ever poll! Please let me know if you noticed a connection between the two!

Hyperemesis Gravidarum Raises its Ugly Head Again

 Once more,  Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) raises its ugly,  fat head in the media frenzy that surrounds the news of Kate Middleton’s second pregnancy.  And once more, it is being played down as “morning sickness”,  or if they are feeling generous “acute morning sickness”.  Sadly,  Kate Middleton has neither – she has a debilitating condition that never lets up,  and quite honestly,  makes morning sickness seem like a walk in the park.

I talk (okay – rant) about it here,  and it is very well explained here,  so I am not going to explain the statistics again.

Awareness for the condition is undoubtedly on this rise (yippee!),  but there is a long, long way to go.  Women with HG are ostracised,  belittled and treated with an unrelenting condescending attitude wherever they turn.  Try living your life for nine months with a constant hangover (and no,  constant is not a hyperbole),  only to be told that it is part and parcel of a normal pregnancy (erm…no. Morning sickness is normal,  HG isn’t)  or that you are making it up (because,  of course women want to fake it,  and spoil a time in their life that should be calm and beautiful).

Women who have suffered with HG have two things in common: we are angry,  and defensive.  Most go on to have PTSD (and no,  again,  I am not exaggerating) after being forced to live with a horrific condition for so long,  one that leaves you weak and terrified for the health of your baby,  but mainly because they are just not believed, and don’t get the emotional support they need. I had my second baby seven years ago,  yet reading about HG reduces me to tears,  every single time.  It is something I am never going to get over.  Had I received the support and care from the medical profession and family members,  I am positive I would not feel this way.  HG brings about isolation,  and this horrible defensive attitude about the condition that will never fade.  Not until the truth is put out there correctly,  anyway.

So,  next time you hear about Kate Middleton being ill – have kindness and compassion in your heart. She isn’t milking it,  and neither is she lording it up because she is royalty.  She may have people to help her,  but that means nothing – she will still feel as poorly as the lady down the street.  The same goes for your friend who you might think is being over-dramatic – she isn’t!  She needs your help and support, and if you offer it,  she won’t stop feeling sick,  but she’ll come out the other side a lot more well-adjusted.

Spread the word,  people.  Please spread the word.

Hyperemesis Gravidarum

I wrote this post for another blog a while ago, and while I totally agree with every sentiment I wrote, I apologise for sounding a bit shouty!

Hyperemesis, what?

Yeah, I know. A bit of a mouthful, eh?

Hyperemesis Gravidarum (let’s just shorten it to HG, shall we?) is kind of like morning sickness. Well, no, it isn’t kind of like morning sickness at all. Not even BAD morning sickness. It is so far removed from morning sickness that it shouldn’t even be used in the same sentence. Or paragraph. Or at all.

But, because so many people (even so-called medical “professionals”) don’t fully understand it, they like to slide it away into a box, neatly filed under morning sickness. Calling HG morning sickness is like saying that Hitler was a little intolerant at times. Yes, you vomit with both HG and morning sickness, but that is where the similarity ends.

Morning sickness is a natural reaction to hormones present during pregnancy. HG is an abnormal reaction. Morning sickness has usually ended by the 12th week. HG is just getting started then. Morning sickness means that you vomit once or twice, in the morning. HG means that you vomit constantly. All day, every day, until the very end.

In all fairness (I am trying to be fair here, as opposed to smashing the laptop in sheer frustration), I can kind of see why medical professionals fail to recognise the seriousness of the condition because it is kind of similar to morning sickness. But what I will NEVER understand is why so many people simply refuse to listen to women who repeatedly report just how ill they are. Women with HG are not drama-queens, they are not looking for attention and neither are they imagining it. All they want is to feel well and to enjoy the beauty that is carrying a baby inside their body. But they can’t. They have been robbed of that special time and that is a hard thing to accept. Even years after the pregnancy.

Awareness of the condition IS growing, albeit slowly. But women are still forced into terminations because their bodies can’t cope and babies are still dying because their mum’s body is so badly dehydrated and unable to sustain them. This is a serious condition that has far-reaching consequences if not treated properly.

It’s time the medical profession bucked their ideas up, got their heads out of their arses and began to take this seriously. It wasn’t so many years ago that HG was seen as psychosomatic, imagined illness caused by women not really wanting to be pregnant.

So, a few words of advice for anyone that has a friend or partner with HG: firstly, listen to her and believe her. She is NOT exaggerating, she really DOES feel that bad and yes, every single second of the day is nothing less than PURE torture. She needs your help and understanding, because living with HG is sometimes tough, so tough, that there are days when you really don’t want to live a second longer. That’s the truth about HG.

Check out the HER website for more info: http://www.helpher.org/

Facebook support: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2587175083/

My ezine article: http://ezinearticles.com/?Hyperemesis-Gravidarum:-The-Truth&id=8158358