Was maternity triage right to refuse IV fluids in early pregnancy?

[MyLoudOtter]

Hi everyone. I’m 8+4 weeks pregnant & need some perspective.
I’ve had severe sickness and extreme aversions for 4 weeks. Tonight, I saw the out of hours GP. He was thorough, scored my sickness as severe (PUQE 14), and noted clear signs of dehydration: sunken eyes, dark urine, and my pulse jumping from 78 to 125 bpm just from standing. He and his senior doctor formally agreed I needed to go to maternity triage for IV fluids.

At triage, the midwife was dismissive and rude. She didn't do a single set of obs and refused to take bloods. She just looked at my urine and said because there was only a trace of ketones, she couldn't give me fluids. She claimed the GP "couldn't be bothered with me," gave me an anti-sickness injection, and sent me home telling me to "just drink 3L of water and eat melon."

Hours later, the injection hasn't worked. I'm still freezing, dizzy, and feeling sick. I forced down some Lucozade and chips out of desperation, but I still feel awful.

AIBU to think triage completely failed their duty of care by ignoring a GP referral and my symptoms? Or is it normal to refuse fluids based only on trace ketones, completely ignoring a racing heart and dizziness?

I hate to be mean but if you can force down Lucozade and chips you are better off than many. I had several hyperemesis with both my pregnancies and was only given IV hydration towards the end when I was hospitalised with my second around 30 weeks.

its shit. It really is. But it will hopefully pass by 15 or so weeks, which feels like forever. Mine didn’t but if you can keep Lucozade and chips down I am beyond jealous.

It truly isn’t a competition.

No one here can answer that OP. Only the nurse who examined you at the time.

The midwife is wrong. This is exhausting to read. They are not supposed to go by ketones!! They’re supposed to go by symptoms. Ugh. The GP did the right thing. If you manage even a bit of a biscuit it it can throw off the ketones but you could be really dehydrated. I’d go back and complain. Maybe call the unit or get your GP to tomorrow. Also contact pregnancy sickness support for help x

What meds are you on?

I had two HG pregnancies - dc are now 18 and nearly 15 - even 15 years ago they weren’t meant to go on ketones! (18 years ago, ketones were king) and we’re meant to go by symptoms - which you have!

I found melting ice lollies or ice cubes in my mouth helped, but I was never denied IV fluids when I needed them.

Pregnancy Sickness Support has useful medical, practical and legal information.

So frustrating- I feel they are very, very reluctant to put people on drips. I was only put on one when I had food poisoning and severe morning sickness.
eat and drink what you can when you can- and remember it will pass. Though I remember someone saying to me HG is so severe you don’t care if you live or die and that summed it up for me.

Go back and see a different midwife.

How are you today OP? Did you go back and see someone different?

‘Beyond jealous’ is a bit silly.

@MyLoudOtter you sound like you are very dehydrated. Have you made it back to the doctor today?

I'm so sorry you were treated that way. The midwife behaved in a very cruel and risky way, not even taking a set of observations and sending you home like that.

Do you take regular anti sickness if so which?

I really hope you are getting some more support today. Update us if you feel up to it x

Same happened to me - only nurse immediately called maternity & I was on a IV fluid drip within 20 mins of being at hospital.

I hope the GP sent you to the right place, maternity triage in our area only covers 16wks and up . I do hope you have had some better support today , it’s an utterly miserable experience and that feeling of ongoing nausea is very hard to deal with . I am just going to flag this statement “I forced down some Lucozade and chips out of desperation, but I still feel awful” as there will be an ongoing need to force yourself to eat and drink, the nausea feeling isn’t necessarily going to go away yet although it can be up and down in severity - and if some food/ drink is going down and stays down then that is a win .