Pregnant woman suicide HG

[rainbowballoo]

Woman with acute morning sickness hanged herself after reducing meds
mol.im/a/13019563

I've found this story very sad to read.

I suffered from HG twice and felt so alone in it. I found the care around it pretty shocking and had to spend hours waiting in a and e for fluids, when already feeling so unwell. This was the only way to get help when at my lowest.

Together with the guilt of not being able to work and people telling you to ' just eat ginger biscuits'.

The care is not good enough. No one really cares about pregnant women, you have to brave it all.

Midwives and medical professionals often make throwaway comments. The issue is also that you're seen by so many different people and services during your pregnancy. There's not one team or person responsible for your care, you just get passed around and no one really knows what's actually going on with you.

I was also on medication for my entire pregnancy and even getting a new prescription each time was a saga. I also had these kinds of comments made by doctors. I had to justify it right until the end of my pregnancy - why I needed the medication. The only nice person I spoke to was an GP who had suffered herself from HG. She prescribed it, no questions asked and really asked me how I was doing mentally and how I was coping with it all. She was the only person to really ask me and really care about it. I only spoke to her once, unfortunately.

Anyway. We need to do better for pregnant women.

RIP to mother and daughter together forever.

It wasn't so bad with my first baby, although I did vomit nearly until the end of the pregnancy but it was manageable without meds. But with my second it was so much worse. I was very lucky to begin with as I had a good OB, his wife had suffered from HG before so he knew how terrible it can be and when I told him the sickness was too bad to cope with he just asked me what meds I wanted to try, and I found good ones (doxylamine - seems to be the same stuff that this poor woman was prescribed and then wrongly told was unsafe) and it was all bearable for a few months but then he left and the new OB decided I should try stopping the meds. I stopped, and ended up in the hospital on a drip. She then decided I should try a different med, that did sod all. Eventually she prescribed the original medicine that I already knew worked.

That poor woman, the midwife ought to be struck off, she shouldn't have said it was dangerous when she didn't actually know anything about the medicine at all. And too many GPs don't know enough about HG, they shouldn't be in charge of prescribing or not prescribing medication for it - should be OBs like in my country, who (mostly) know more about it.

I have to admit that I did think attitudes were starting to change in regards to HG.

My first pregnancy was 33 years ago and the HG started before I even missed my first period. But I was an 18yo single parent and despite my losing a stone in 2 weeks, turning yellow, being delirious, I was treated.as.if it was all in my mind. Medications back then weren't as.good as they are now, and I spent half my pregnancy attached to a drip. Staying in hospital until I managed to keep food down for 24hrs (heavily sedated, with anti-emetics through the drip), which often took a week. And then back home until I kept nothing down for 24hrs (a week if I was lucky). My "bed" was C3, kept reserved for.me and the last time I vomited was immediately after delivery.
Absolute worst attitude was being 20weeks and told "it wasn't too.late to have an abortion", I saw my baby's heart beating at 6weeks pregnant and knew from then on I was keeping the baby.
I went on to have 3 more babies in the next 7years and actual treatment didn't improve, although the attitude towards me did as I got older and was then married.

14.5years ago I got pregnant again, and again was throwing up before I could even take an early pregnancy test. That time around I could articulate the care I needed. I already knew when I needed help (4weeks gone) and was admitted at 5weeks for one week. Treatment had definitely improved and I was given a new drug, Ondansetron. Didn't stop the throwing up but made it so I could stay home. Getting the meds off the GP was difficult, but after throwing up in the waiting room and his office.a few times did the trick.
My youngest is 10, and yes the HG did start before the positive test, yest again. But I only needed the one hospital stay to get put on the right medication and there was now a HG protocol on the ward. I could phone whenever I needed support.
Again I hoped these improvements had continued and that it was finally being recognised that HG is not just morning sickness. Its a potentially life-threatening condition, that has long lasting repercussions.
To the previous poster, yes teeth, mine have virtually rotted away, but because of the 9months of throwing up with each pregnancy I can't stand anything in my mouth. I also have a real phobia of vomiting, the trauma of crawling to the bathroom, throwing up.bile in the sink, trying not to pee myself because the spasms were so.intense, tends.to do that to you.

I also now have an binge eating disorder, possibly linked to the fact that I couldn't eat.for such a long time and then when I could I ate everything in sight

I was once told it was almost like an allergic reaction to the hormones. Which kind of made sense to 18yo me.

What depressing reading this is, how HG women are still pleading for help. I had it during my only pregnancy, nearly 30 years ago.Male GP said pregnancy isn't an illness, despite me losing weight daily from vomiting. I looked hellish. Couldn't keep a sip of water down. Was eventually admitted at 10 weeks and given cyclizine and stemetil. The patient next to me talked about me as did my mother. I was wishing I would miscarry, as awful that sounds. The smell of anything or anyone revolted me. I later had pre-eclampsia and another serious complication. So for me pregnancy was an illness and also the most isolating, miserable, frightening experience. I was made to feel a hypochondriac.

I had HG with my dd (my first born). Ended up hospitalised several times with severe dehydration.

It eventually stopped at 20 weeks but I had more problems after that. Tbh it’s a miracle I went in to have another baby! Luckily no HG with number 2

Out of interest were both babies the same sex?

I am
So sorry to read this. I suffered from Hg with all my pregnancies and whilst I didn't want to end it all, I'd have done anything else to make it all go away. I used to crawl on all fours because I didn't have the energy to stand up straight and my throat used to bleed from all the dry heaving.

Nope.

First was a girl, second was a boy

A devastating story. My sister suffered with HG in both her pregnancies and I have never seen someone so broken.

My first pregnancy was 33 years ago and the HG started before I even missed my first period.

This could be me. I wasn't due on for a couple of days, but I stood up one afternoon, was hit by a huge wave of nausea and only just made it to the bathroom. I was sick multiple times every day of that pregnancy but fortunately wasn't as bad as some of you here although I was lighter after the birth than I had been before it.

This is horrible. A friend of a friend had bad HG and went on to kill herself when her baby was weeks old. It seemed like it was connected to the HG as it had made her so miserable and she never recovered from that.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-67684023.amp

I was told during my first pregnancy when I was only 16 it was almost like being allergic to the baby. I had a loss with that pregnancy but I was told the more sick I was the healthier the pregnancy which confused me.

I suffered horrendous pregnancy sickness until I was 13 weeks gone. This was in 1983,and back then there was zero help offered for it. I was literally puking from the moment I woke up until I went to sleep. I was given the usual useless advice,like eat a ginger biscuit. I suppose I was one of the 'lucky' ones,in that it didn't last the entire pregnancy,and literally disappeared overnight when I hit 13 weeks. My heart goes out to women who suffer from HG.

I am so sorry to read that, and sorry for your loss. Sending you love.

I suspect it's the injustice for many women of people not believing how sick they actually are that leads to ppd. I know it was a massive factor in my own.
I truly was shocked at how unbelievably sick the human body could be for some women. It's unexplainable, which I think it why women give examples of physical problems they endured during and after pregnancy caused by hg because "I was sick 100s of times a day" doesn't really cut it.
There was an american lass in an online HG group who had had hg a twice but in between pregnancies had needed chemo, she said people didn't believe how bad her hg was until she would say she'd rather the worst day of chemo than the most mild day of hg. That was when her insurance agreed to sort her out some type of home IV for her. It has a proper name but I cannae remember it, sorry.

I wish your pal had of had a different outcome for her and her wee baby without it's mummy. Truly Do.

I am so sorry to read that, and sorry for your loss. Sending you love.

I suspect it's the injustice for many women of people not believing how sick they actually are that leads to ppd. I know it was a massive factor in my own.
I truly was shocked at how unbelievably sick the human body could be for some women. It's unexplainable, which I think it why women give examples of physical problems they endured during and after pregnancy caused by hg because "I was sick 100s of times a day" doesn't really cut it.
There was an american lass in an online HG group who had had hg a twice but in between pregnancies had needed chemo, she said people didn't believe how bad her hg was until she would say she'd rather the worst day of chemo than the most mild day of hg. That was when her insurance agreed to sort her out some type of home IV for her. It has a proper name but I cannae remember it, sorry.

I wish your pal had of had a different outcome for her and her wee baby without it's mummy. Truly Do.

@Kendodd it is genetic. The only other time the body floods with a high dose of GDF15 is in the final weeks of life (usually terminally ill)
I have had HG 5 Times. I volunteer for Pregnancy Sickness Support and have personally supported over 40 women through their pregnancy. It is torture.
My heart truly breaks for Jessica and Elsie. What their family have done since has been inspirational and they have raised almost £50,000 for pregnancy Sickness Support.
There is help available! You do not have to suffer alone.

@Soubriquet I've no actual knowledge but do you think that it was being pregnant with different sex child that made the difference? Can that happen?

I did not have HG, but had intense nausea for the whole nine months. I have never felt so low and ill in my life. I felt that my baby was like an alien poisoning me from the inside.

Hugs to all the women have gone through it. There are men and women out there who do not believe how intensely sick pregnancy can make you. It is especially disappointing when women who have been pregnant disbelieve women who report HG.

I hope this thread can prevent another incident like this tragedy in the OP.

I would like to say yes. I’ve heard it a lot but it could be wrong

4 boys, 2 girls here and it was horrendous in every pregnancy, only difference was with each pregnancy I learnt what did and didn't help and what was the easiest to throw up. I choked a few times with mashed potato, that is really not nice to bring back up. And I would definitely recommend staying away from McDonalds milkshakes if you have HG.
What did help me was Coca Cola (it had to be the real thing and it had to be so cold it was almost frozen and even then I could only have sips and it wasn't nice of I drank a little too much and vomited).

This is so sad. RIP.
I remember suffering from bad morning sickness (not this severe) and the nurse taking my blood said my daughter was prettier than me and not to tell my husband she was 'talking about his wife.'
The dismissal and disrespect of pregnant women and mothers is shocking.

My second pregnancy was horrendous for nausea. I felts sick 24/7 for half the pregnancy. I couldn't eat eanytthing but plain pasta or white bread. I lost about a stone. I honestly don't know how people with full on hg get through it.

I was pregnant on the pandemic and my mental health was really hammered. The nausea just broke the camels back.

I remember a phone call with the midwife I told her I felt really low and anxious wasn't eateninv and was really worried as my first pregnancy was so different. Her response was ' sounds like it's all going fine '
I ended up ok sertaline. So I'm not surprised sadly about this sad, sad case. A mum and daughter lost.

Why is woman's pain so routinely ignored? It's disgraceful.