Intro Post-Script

And now I feel the need to add a disclaimer.

That last post was copied from the brilliant HelpHER forums, over here. That place exists as a support forum for sufferers of Hyperemesis, and some of the replies I got made me realise some things:

1. I don't have hyperemesis. I knew that really, but I don't. So far I choose to believe that I don't have it because I'm keeping it at bay through my own actions, but I have no evidence for that. It may just be luck of the draw, I may have escaped this time round. Or I may just not have got it yet. I'm 9 weeks pregnanct, last time it didn't get really bad til 10 weeks. Also apparently it may be possible to delay its onset through careful management of diet, vitamins etc and environment, but it can still kick in at a later point.

I feel bad, because I know how infuriating it is when you're suffering from HG (i.e. hyperemesis) and people try to tell you strategies which will work. When you're in the thick of it, nothing works.

But I also feel bad because I don't want to believe that and I don't think it's helpful to believe that. In my current position, tension makes me feel much worse. Worry makes me ill. Anxiety makes me nauseous. So it's not healthy or helpful for me to stop believing I'm making a difference and start believing there's no escape.

I'm not suggesting that HG is a psychosomatic condition (i.e. all in the mind), I would never do that. But I do hope I can lessen its impact bby managin my anxiety and by techniques such as hypnotherapy.

It's always possible that I'm just lucky, like my mum was, and I've escaped it this time round. Only 20% of HG mothers, apparently, escape it in their second pregnancies. I just have to hope I'm one of them, and if I am I'll never know whether it was luck or intervention.

I'm so bloody scared.