Now that is a real horror story…How come she did not get a few informed opinions?

What a really sad story. My morning sickness got progressively worse with each of my 3 pregnancies and although it only lasted for about 4 months each time-it felt like it would never end and I was desperate for it to go away.
Did nobody bother to ask this poor women why she was having an abortion?

As my wife is on the verge of conceiving a baby, I started looking for all the good info on how to take care of her health. This post is very useful. Thanks. – Mike

Wow, I’ve never heard of anything that bad for any woman. I’m surprised that the doctor never did anything to help her get past the sickness.

This is a very tragic story, I know some pregnancies can be difficult but did not realise it could get this bad. She must feel traumatised but I hope if she falls pregnant again she does not have to suffer with this stress.

Though my desire for a baby and my conscience would never allow me to have an abortion, I will admit that with my third child (5th pregnancy….2 prior miscarriages) I was so sick that the thought crossed my mind that maybe I would like to miscarry because I couldn’t withstand the torture of “morning sickness” any longer. It started for me at about 4 1/2 weeks and didn’t let up until about 20 weeks. After that I was still stick, but the “torture” aspect was gone. I was prescribed Reglan and it did nothing. I got B6 shots daily and they helped to take a very slight edge off of some of my symptoms of restless muscles in my arms and legs so I could lay still in my bed, but I was still nauseated ALL the time. I would love to have another child, but I am TERRIFIED of going through the torture again. Is there a remedy that really works out there?

@Hal:

Wow – what an awful story. I can imagine you would hesitate to get pregnant again. There is no single cure for morning sickness that works for all women. Ginger helps some women and an elimination diet may help eliminate certain foods that are triggers. It can also be helpful to know that you may have no morning sickness at all with your second.

I saw my wife go through terrible morning sickness times. It was awful. However I would never have thought that someone would have had an abortion because of it. What helped my wife was Vit B6 tablets in high doses. Obviously our doc was monitoring her too so it was a safe recommendation.

My 1st pregnancy caused hyper emesis thru the 7th month, the doctor did nothing to help, gave me a prescription for a drug that didn’t work.

My weight gain ended up being very high because I felt like I was starving all the time – and high fatty food was easier to bring back up. Never knew about ginger or other natural methods.

Pregnancy 2 and 3 had no morning sickness – beyond a couple days of queasiness at 10 to 12 weeks.

My first born is now pregnant with her 1st – 18 wks, she has been through the ringer. Hospitalized twice for hyper emesis. Her weight gain is still in the minus numbers, but her belly bean appears strong and healthy and her doctor and husband have been so helpful and supportive. I think having loving support makes all the difference. She thinks this maybe an only child…

Thank you for posting such an informative post here. Although tragic, it is really helpful for first timers trying to conceive.

Keep it up!

Hal – I totally sympathise. I am 29 weeks pregnant with my first child and have been suffering from hyperemesis. I wanted nothing more than to conceive and have always wanted 2 or 3 children but I am scared of getting hyperemesis again. After several admissions to hospital for fluids and anti-sickness medication and once for intravenous feeding, I was prescribed Ondansetron and it worked like a miracle for me… I have been able to conduct my pregnancy normally these last few months. My health professionals have advised me that subsequent pregnancies will not necessarily be afflicted with hyperemesis but there is no guarantee – odds are that they won’t though. I hope this helps. C

I had the same thing happen to me not once but twice. My boyfriend and i wanted to have a baby soo bad so we tried for 6 months before i got pregnant and we were so happy until the fourth week came along. I felt like i was on my death bed dying i lost 15 pounds in two weeks and i felt like my stomach was being eat up by acid. We went to several different doctors and nobody would help. One doctor gave me medication in an iv but it did nothing and the rest said i was fine. Every night i would pray for God to take my life it was that bad. I was always against abortions but i felt like i would die if i didnt get one. Twenty minutes after the procedure i felt alive again. We thought for sure that could never happen again but it did. I guess i can never have another baby. I just wish doctors would try to help more.

This post is really making me sad to know how people especially women are behaving at certain stages of their life. The crucial moment that can change the entire course of life, is child birth. Aborting a child for morning sickness is pathetic.

@Stephanie: Wow. I am really sorry for your loss.

Thanks for the comments. Actually I was VERY sick with my first and second child too. Each pregnancy just got worse. My third was completely over the top. I don’t know how many times my husband had to pick me up off the floor while I was crying and carry me to my bed. And I am not a wimpy person normally. I had 3 c- sections and had no problem with the pain or recovery. But the pregnancies are a different story. People who have never experienced how much torture a pregnancy can be really have no room to comment. I would have never believed it if I hadn’t experienced it. I still say that I would never abort a child and I don’t believe anyone should casually make that decision (especially in cases not related to life and death), but for Richard to call someone pathetic is really just naive. I think it is really really sad that this woman, and I’m sure others, got so sick that she lost her ability to think clearly and just wanted relief. Maybe her desire to have a baby wasn’t terribly strong either. I don’t know. But I can definitely relate to feeling so sick for so long (and the problem is really how long the torture goes on…..most people can handle torture for a short period of time, but when it persists for months with not a single moment of relief, then you start to get desperate) that you just don’t know how you carry on and you just want relief. I definitely don’t condone the decision to abort a sweet little innocent baby. Hopefully people don’t engage in behaviors that could end up in pregnancy unless they are committed and willing to go through what could be torture for a long time. In the end the baby is worth it!

Oh and by the way…..what doesn’t kill you DOES make you stronger.

Whatever someone’s opinion on abortion is, and there are strong views on both sides, I don’t think many would think this is a good reason.

My first pregnancy went well with no nausea at all. My second is a nightmare, my nausea and overall horrible feelings 24 hours a day is ruining my life. I am always snapping at everyone, I can barely leave the house without fighting vomiting.

No remedies help me, if I stay sedated with antinausea medications the problem starts up as soon as it wears off. With or without food in my stomach I am sick.

I am strongly considering abortion because I am so miserable I can’t imagine putting up with this any longer. Since my previous pregnancy was pleasant, I feel something is wrong with this one.

For those who feel I am frivolous, consider feeling like you are at the verge of very hard retching 24 hours a day with no relief. No I cannot work and there is no other way to support myself. In my previous pregnancy I worked, now I am about to lose everything because I cannot. I do not qualify for public assistance and no one can help me. Instead of saying nasty things, people need to help pregnant women in need, not criticize them for trying to save themselves by ending a pregnancy gone wrong.

After being through severe pregnancy sickness (three times)and feeling more and more desperate and trapped each day, I can understand how the lady felt she had no other option. It feels like your life has been taken away from you and that you are existing in a vomiting hell. When you are going through this it is SO difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel. In addition some health professionals are anything but professional – and do not show one jot of care. Unfortunately I had an unextremely unsympathetic doctor who had one of these ‘pregnancy isn’t an illness exteriors’.

If you have no gone through this i wouldn’t criticize….i had an abortion due to hyperemesis, I tried as much as i could and at the end i thought i was going to die…i even considered jumping off my balconey because i could no longer take it i was vomiting bile and blood….i couldn’t walk from my room to the washroom and would lay on the floor crying! I am not pregnant again, my 9th week now and have been hospitalized twice due to this and its not as bad as it was the last time but it is still insane…i am not going to abort this time but i promised myself this child will be an only child…..I am just PRAYING it will go away soon.

Just a side note – consuming large amounts of ginger can bring about spontaneous abortion (miscarriage), so if you’re trying to keep the wee one in as well as get rid of morning sickness, forgo the ginger during the first trimester and try other methods.

There is a huge difference between “morning sickness” and hyperemesis gravidarum. Google it. HG is a debilitating condition that takes a person down to such lows that your own death starts looking pretty attractive. I know, I’ve had it three times. The TITLE of this post (“BAD MOM”) and some of the comments judging this poor woman for her “morning sickness” are so uninformed it makes my blood boil. Let’s not judge someone’s decisions until you’ve been in their shoes. You try puking your guts out 20 times a day for 9 months, or 5 weeks even, and then think about whether you’d maybe consider putting a stop to the process that is making your body turn on you. It’s particularly difficult when you have existing kids to care for. I carried my kids to term but I would not blame anyone else with HG for terminating their pregnancies. I certainly am not having any more kids because of it. Not only did I lose my job during my 1st HG pregnancy, but all the puking has taken its toll on my esophagus (permanent damage), my teeth (also permanent damage), and my psyche. Please, a little sympathy for those with HG. I would recommend changing the title of this post as well.

I feel really sick, day in day out. I tried so hard to get pregnant but now I have to work, look after 4 kids and do housework and please my husband. I cannot do this. I feeel nauseous all the time. I can hardly have a shower, brush my teeth etc I don’t care how I ook and I am desperate to end this hell. I am so sorry that I am going to abort but I really have to. No rlief. From now on I’ll be on the pill. I do not know how I already went through four bad pregnancies. I don’t know. I can no longer endure it.

While I don’t have the details on it, so I won’t expound, there have been cases of marijuana being used to quell the nausea. Thought I’d put that out there for anyone reaching this level of desperation. Definitely not a first line of defense, but when all other methods have failed and the hyperemesis has reached a level where the life of the child is at risk, either because the mother can’t get the appropriate nutrition into her body or because the pregnancy is so debilitation that abortion is being considered – well, heck, I’d rather take that route than lose the child. If that’s where you’re at, search it out and chose the option best for you.

Anyone with severe HG should research medical marijuana. Look at the studies, look who funded them, and if it isnt a conflict of interest, (government, pharma, etc) takea good look at the evidence and decide for yourself. The study from Melanie Dreher and colleagues at UMass Amherst is a good one.

I am in my 3rd pregnancy, and with my first two…I had moderate sickness. Nothing compared to what some of you ladies have gone thru….at about 6 weeks into this pregnancy I began the queasiness and i began drinking kombucha tea and WOW…morning sickness is gone.

It has already been mentioned that not one method remedies all women, but chamomile, ginger and the kombucha are really really wonderful for alleviating light to moderate symptoms.

Hope this helps whoever stumbles by this articles looking for answers.

Pregnancy should not have to be so rough! There are answers, you just have to be open to finding them *outside* the realm of the medical world. Things Luke acupuncture, homeopathy, and seeing an experienced and educated chiropractor are all options people rarely take advantage of. It’s amazing what the medical world doesn’t know (or knows but won’t tell you). I have to say I have personally found a TON of relief with acupuncture and would recommend trying it for just about anything that ails you – even if it seems to be pregnancy. God bless.

I posted about this very subject myself earlier, and it was a pleasure to read your view on it Mira. All the best , driving101.