"Royal Pregnancy"

There is a rare case of morning sickness that can require hospitalization and IV's. Zofran does not work for this type of morning sickness. I have known of one person who had it this bad, and it is considered a rare form of morning sickness and can be life threatening to mom and baby.

It's considered "rare" because only about 1% of all pregnant women experience this type of severe morning sickness. This goes way beyond just needing zofran or her being a pampered princess.

http://health.yahoo.net/experts/celebrityhealthminute/roy....

It is rare, actually. It's not just needing an anti-nausea medication, it's being so sick that you have to be hospitalized just to remain hydrated.

I mean, I have a friend who was nausea and puking through most of her pregnancy, but that really isn't comparable to this. I think this would be more like not even being able to keep water down, morning OR night.

I could never properly articulate how having this it, but I will try. You have to understand, it's constant. It's not just nausea, it's constant violent vomiting. I was toeing the line of having this. I got severely dehydrated many times. Had to be hospitalized many times. I had to go in for monitoring several times a week. I was on bed rest nearly my whole pregnancy. I had to drink a gallon of water minimum every day. (Actually, it was more like 2-3, because I had to replace drink every time I vomited.) I did take Zofran, but all that did was help (RARELY, but it did help every so often) me get water down, and maybe some watermelon or mints. i couldn't even lift my head without vomiting. My stomach lining and gut were destroyed during the pregnancy. (They goodness they repair themselves!!) I couldn't speak for days at a time, because the vomiting tore up my throat. It was beyond miserable. I literally felt like that must be what it feels like to die of an illness, because it felt like death. On top of ALL that, they were scared I would lose all my body fat and not be able to support the baby. My weight and levels were on constant monitoring. Ever tried getting into a car several times a week, when you can't breath without vomiting bile or blood...because you have nothing left to vomit. I was praying every day just to get through the pregnancy. And I didn't even technically have it!! My OB had only dealt with this a few times and had to send me to a high risk doctor. So, yes...I would consider this "rare."

Would you consider any of that typical? The, add on top of that...the world watching. Having to attempt appearances. Interviews. Not being able to see a Dr. without the world following you. I feel sorry for the poor girl. It's not being thrown around. It's more then Zofran. You admit you've never been there, so why throw around the judgement so loosely?

I haven't read the article. But I had two friends who were SOOOO sick during their pregnancies that they had to have IV's at home and both lost so much weight that it was scary. They were afraid that they would have to terminate their pregnancies.

Maybe that's what this is. Hope you never see a friend looking like a skeleton at 4 months pregnant (losing over 30 pounds) like one of mine did.

Me? Just run-of-the-mill nausea that was terrible TO ME, but compared to these two gals, was absolutely nothing.

Dawn

This form of sickness is beyond what you encountered. Women with this can throw up 25 or more times a day (imagine vomiting every single hour, all day and all night) and the risk for rapid dehydration is very great. Up until the 1950s, women and their fetuses often died of the condition, known as hyperemesis gravidarum. Hospitalization is key.

It's certainly not a common complication, but I don't know if it's really rare.

I do think she's quite sick. They didn't intend to announce the pregnancy this soon- it sounded like they hadn't even told the Queen yet. But taking her to the hospital made the announcement necessary. If it was a condition that could have been treated at home I'm sure they have the resources to do that.

I wouldn't call it rare. I know people with hyperemesis that needed hospitalization and then were sent home with IV's. Media sensationalism? I know it's not your run of the mill every day morning sickness, but it's definitely not unheard of.

I was close to it when pregnant with my daughter (the boys were fine). I couldn't keep water down. I lost 25 lbs in the first 12 weeks. At that point I didn't know it wasn't "normal" morning sickness. Luckily, I responded to Zofran. Had I not, I would have been in the hospital, too.

Morning sickness. In hospital because of who she is. Your average Jo would be home ans miserable. This is going to be a long, long, long pregnancy for the world!

I know of one person who had this. It's a shame they are calling it "acute morning sickness" because that doesn't really cover it. Does the smell of water make you vomit? Constantly? How do you stay hydrated? Does the least movement make you vomit? Constantly? This isn't just a really bad case of morning sickness. This is a serious medical condition. Read Bug's response. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.

Yes. You are missing something. Unless the people you know were hospitalized with it, you probably don't know that many people who've had it. (And think of all the folks you know who've had babies. Knowing a couple of women hospitalized for HG would still not negate the rarity. Heck. Brain cancer is rare, but I know of several people who've had it.)

I have had one friend with this type of morning sickness. She was hospitalized a few times, and she and her husband actually ended up having to move in with her parents for the duration of the pregnancy because of the severity of her condition. It definitely goes beyond needing Zofran.

KAte has been hospitalized with morning sickness, and since I have never known anyone who needed to be hospitalized for morning sickness that makes it rare.

A friend of mine had this. She had to be hospitalized and fed intravenously. She actually LOST weight while pregnant and went below her pre-pregnancy weight. By all accounts, it was an absolutely horrible and scary experience for her.

"A spokeswoman for the couple said 30-year-old Catherine, widely known as Kate, was in the King Edward VII Hospital in central London suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum, an acute morning sickness which causes severe nausea and vomiting and requires supplementary hydration and nutrients." -Reuters

I heard it was Hyper Emesis, not morning sickness....which needs hospitalization and feeding tubes etc. It's irresponsible for news to call it morning sickness if this is the case.

You can google Katie Couric's recent piece on this interviewing some women who had it for more info.

If they had just said "morning sickness", then I would say, "Bless her...hope that's not too bad for her," and keep it moving. "Unusual acute case" is different, though. It means that it's not the typical case of morning sickness and that it's concentrated and severe. That is literally what these words mean. It means that the usual drugs that relieve the mild cases in some women just won't work in her case. In the meantime, she's miserable and sick. Miserable and sick is a bad combo at any time, but during pregnancy it can make you (almost) want to perform your own C-section. No, really, it can make you crazy. It's also physically dangerous if she can't keep nourished and hydrated during pregnancy.

Given that information, before I keep it moving, I stop and say, "Oh, bless her, how terrible she must feel. I hope that it doesn't last long." I am not invested in this pregnancy in any way and don't care to hear all the details, but as a former pregnant woman, I can sympathize.

Morning sickness is experience by most women
Hyperemesis Gravidarium by a tiny percentage

And then within HG there is a spectrum. So, HG is fairly rare to begin with, and then the most severe form is even rarer (as in extremely).

Some common side effects of Moderate to Severe HG:

Seizures
Broken Ribs
Punctured Lungs
Torn esophagus
Aspiration Pneumonia
Acid eating the lungs (from the aspiration)
Hypoxia (blood oxygen too low)
Brain damage (from hypoxia)
Heart Attack
Miscarriage
Death

LOL... We know we don't hear of too many cases like this (although whenever one pops up, med students jump all over it... just like any other rare case), because most people are blowing it off.

Honestly, it could be normal morning sickness, or even mild HG (which can be treated with medication on an outpatient basis)... but since this is the royal line, every precaution is being taken.

HOWEVER... I just like to generally assume that whatever "it" is, is medically necessary. I'm not saying you're minimizing it, but as a high risk (bed rest) pregnancy myself (who was told over and over that I was fat and lazy for not exercising -on bedrest- by well intentioned or high horsed idiots... it makes my blood boil to see and hear people sneering at a pregnant woman following doctor's orders.

She's pretty thin to begin with.
She can't really afford to lose a lot of weight.
Hopefully things will settle down after the 1st trimester is completed.

With Prince Williams full name being William Arthur Philip Louis Windsor (or Mountbatten-Windsor), how many baby names have THEY got to go through before they pick their favorite several selections?

I've known four people in the last five years to have hyperemesis gravidarum, my sister being one of them.

Debilitating? Yes. Rare? Gosh, not THAT rare.

I know many friends who took Zofran and were not sick as much as me - I never got the HG diagnosis, but there were so many other things going on with the pregnancy, that would have been the least of the worries. I was sick 24/7 for over 6mos, carrying puke bags and drinking a gallon of water/day, on top of bedrest. It was constant and I continued to lose weight until 7mos. Like another blogger wrote, I was lucky that I didn't have any other children during the pregnancy and I just focused on the light at the end of the tunnel (praying that there would be light).
Knowing hundreds of pregnant women in my life, I considered my amount of sickness rare because I didn't know anyone else who had it that severely or that long.

Yep, I'm with you. I'm sure it's somewhat rare, as in most of us that get morning sickness don't get it to this degree. I definitely had morning sickness (through the whole pregnancy), but it was never bad enough to be hospitalized.

Hmmm ... me thinks the headline might have been slightly exaggerated!

Hey, the press has been dying for some actual "baby news" since long before the wedding.

ETA - I don't doubt that she's really sick. I just think calling it "rare" is just a desperate attempt to make an ongoing news story out of a "one dayer." I'm guessing that's what BD meant as well.

It's not rare. I know 3 people, including myself that had hyperemesis gravidarum. My heart goes out to her, it's a horrible thing to experience!

Its not rare. I had it with ALL of my kiddos and had to be hospitalized too. I think they are making a big deal of it because they are famous. I empathize with her but this is overkill to be saying it is "rare".

Based on my own personal experience I'm guessing it's not actually rare, but rather, under diagnosed. I went through the awful symptoms described during my pregnancy, but I had to suffer for weeks and lose 25 lbs before the doctor would take my complains seriously and prescribe some zofran.
My son was born healthy thank goodness, but as for me, I seem to be battling one mystery problem after another since being pregnant!

I puked at least once per day for 8 1/2 months. I took meds and threw them up. I gained weight and didn't have many other health issues.

She is very very thin already and may be losing weight that could terminate the pregnancy. I do suppose they will come out eventually and tell what a terrific and heroic job she did and how she sacrificed so much to carry the baby.....

Updated

I puked at least once per day for 8 1/2 months. I took meds and threw them up. I gained weight and didn't have many other health issues.

She is very very thin already and may be losing weight that could terminate the pregnancy. I do suppose they will come out eventually and tell what a terrific and heroic job she did and how she sacrificed so much to carry the baby.....

Because statistically only 1% of pregnancies is affected by excessive morning sickness. Not down playing anyone that suffered from it cause I had it with my first in which I was hospitalized several times for dehydration. Just saying that it is considered rare from a statistical standpoint

I heard that the condition she has only occurs in about 2 out of every 1,000 pregnancies so that is kind of rare. She is supposed to be hospitalized for about 60 days. That is rare. I don't know ANYONE who was hospitalized for morning sickness. But it could be that she's only in the hospital because she's royalty. Who really knows.