by Rebecca Brown

Created on: May 04, 2009

Pregnancy should be an amazing, wonderful experience that you remember with joy. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out that way, and possibly one of the most common problems of pregnancy is nausea. This can be as mild as a faint travel-sickness feeling and in this case, yes, drugs are almost certainly not necessary or even desirable. There are lots of 'remedies' for morning sickness, whether these are old wives' tales, homeopathic, or just finding out what an individual woman's trigger is and staying on top of it. Many women swear that eating a plain biscuit before getting out of bed is the answer.

Unfortunately, women who are able to get by with help like this, or are even lucky enough to avoid morning sickness altogether, are possibly in a weak position to argue against the use of drugs for those of us who suffer from more extreme nausea, including hyperemesis. I would have loved, during my pregnancy, to be able to say "Yes, just a nibble on a ginger nut and I'm fine". Sadly my pregnancy (and most of the carpets in the house) was highly coloured by being violently sick several times a day right up until I had given birth. I was on an IV drip for five days when I was five weeks pregnant, in hospital on multiple occasions, and tried two different kinds of medication. These never got rid of my sickness but did stop me needing more frequent hospitalisation. I know that the second drug I was on was working by the simple fact that when I was, for whatever reason, unable to take my tablet on one day, I would be unable to tolerate any food or drink for two days, even sips of water.

I can only imagine the effect this could have had on my unborn baby, and there are many reasons why I was relieved (literally) to have some way of alleviating my sickness. Firstly, the stress of pregnancy (which is rarely as serene and perfect as you may think beforehand) would have been, and was, greatly increased by worrying if my baby was getting enough nutrients. Secondly, the physical strain on your body is exhausting enough during a 'normal' pregnancy - being unable to keep yourself well-nourished takes a severe toll on your health. Thirdly, the emotional impact of pregnancy hormones excaerbates everything to such an extent that the misery of being constantly sick tends to dominate the whole forty weeks, and can even overshadow the happiness of having a baby, as well as having an impact on your emotional health afterwards and your fears about future pregnancies.

There are obviously risks from using any drugs in pregnancy, and particularly anti-emetic drugs which, I was told by my doctor, are not tested on pregnant women. However, the drugs are anecdotally safe and effective, and their use outweighs the risks to both mother and baby from hyperemesis - I am again, I would like to point out, talking about hyperemesis, not mild morning sickness.

I know, again from personal experience, that there are worse things that can happen during pregnancy than sickness. But nausea and sickness are things that can be avoided or alleviated, and therefore should be where necessary, surely? There are risks to using epidurals and other pain killers, but very few women, I believe, would deny that where these are needed it would be cruel to prevent other women using them.

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