Mistreatment of extreme morning sickness 'leading to abortions'

"Extreme morning sickness causes 1k abortions a year, study finds," The Daily Telegraph reports. The report states that poor treatment of some cases of extreme morning sickness (hyperemesis gravidarum) is leading some women to terminate their pregnancy, despite there being safe and effective treatments available. While morning sickness can be unpleasant, hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) can be extremely debilitating. It can cause feelings of constant nausea, frequent vomiting (some women have reported vomiting up to 50 times a day) and dehydration. Left untreated, it can even be life-threatening. The "one thousand" figure quoted by the Telegraph comes from an unpublished survey reportedly finding that up to 10% of women with severe morning sickness terminate a pregnancy because of this. We are therefore not able to comment further on the representation of this survey or the validity of this figure.   What is the basis for these reports? In a joint report called "I could not survive another day", The British Pregnancy Advisory Service and Pregnancy Sickness Support recount women's experiences of severe pregnancy sickness. The report aims to improve treatment and tackle stigma for women with severe pregnancy sickness by outlining the experiences that led some to have an abortion. The report takes the form of a referenced discussion supported by anecdotes. However, no methods are given in the report, so we cannot know how the selected research has ...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medical practice Pregnancy/child QA articles Source Type: news