"Hyperemesis Gravidarum - lack of education apparent"

I suffered with Hyperemesis Gravidarum during my pregnancy and felt like I wasn’t listened to until my midwife stepped in. For the first 24 weeks of my pregnancy I was struggling so much with sickness whilst having a toddler, but unfortunately my GP surgery gave me next to no help and support and made me feel like a complete inconvenience (despite not needing much healthcare support previous to this) and it impacted my mental health as well. I felt very alone and low and I truly didn’t know where to turn for support.

They refused to prescribe me a good amount of medication that would last minimum of 2 weeks, so every week I was running out, as they wouldn’t prescribe it to me before I had used the previous lot (I then had to order it in which took 2 days) so my sickness was coming back worse than ever and I never felt on top of it, it also bought anxiety every time I had to ask for medications as it was always such a battle.

After 23 weeks of pregnancy and my sickness taking over my life, weight loss was also very visible. I rung to ask for an emergency appointment as I was unable to eat and kept very little fluids down and they offered me an appointment 15 days away. I was told that my baby is healthy as seen in my 12 week scan and to not worry but I explained to them that yes my baby is fine but I was not.

I was never seen once during my pregnancy by my GP until this appointment and it was all too late, I feel so let down, alone and genuinely scared for my health during my pregnancy and I feel like more support from my GP could have massively prevented this. It makes me scared to go on to have more children despite being desperate for more, as the battle with my health along with my GP felt all too much this time.

Unfortunately there is not much education surrounding HG, and this was very apparent through my experience in the NHS whilst suffering with it.