We all know that one pregnant girl that may as well join the ranks of the many beautiful pregnant celebrities we see sprawled on the front pages of the magazines. That one pregnant girl we all know that was one of the lucky ones. That one pregnant girl we all know that won, ‘The Pregnancy Lottery’. Winning amongst the thousands, the ‘The Pregnancy Lottery’ winning ticket, like no other ticket, allows a woman to bypass all vomiting, all cellulite, all swelling, all blood noses, all yeast infections, all stretch marks, all moodiness, all bloating, all incontinence, all acne, and all that is linked to the misery that can be and often is pregnancy. The ticket enables them to continue wearing the shortest of short shorts, showing off their cellulite free, perky and toned buttocks. It enables their boobs to remain in their correct pre pregnancy position, miraculously growing in size and giving off the appearance of an overnight boob job, rather than looking like what can only be described as two ill positioned cow udders. A ticket, allowing them to continue their current exercise regime, although lucky enough to down scale their two hour a day gym session to a half hour, as miraculously their metabolism is back to that of a five year old and they are finding it hard to put on weight, despite chowing down nightly on a full block of Cadbury chocolate. Their hair suddenly has an amazing similarity to that of Rapunzel, their skin like the after shots on a corny before and after Clearasil advertisement, their ankles fankle free enabling them to sport the highest of heels, and for some even luckier few, a ticket enabling them to actually pull off a bikini, without looking like an oversized hippopotamus. 

But for others, and probably most women, pregnancy is not always that glowing time that the celebrities, and that one lucky girl you know who won the pregnancy lottery would have you believe. In fact for some, pregnancy is one of the toughest and hardest times in their life.

So what defines a tough pregnancy? I think the answer to this question would differ significantly for anyone that has ‘been there’. It might be fluid retention, the impact of previous miscarriages, migraines, morning sickness, high blood pressure, hair loss, weight gain, weight loss, pre eclampsia, stress, acne or lethargy. Or maybe it’s nothing to do with the actual pregnancy at all and you just have some other stuff going on in life that is making it tough.

For me, I had two whole weeks where I thought maybe my ticket had been drawn. Two whole weeks that after getting through all the testing to confirm that it was not an ecptopic pregnancy, I began planning what I would do with my lottery win. I was genuinely on top of the world and busy planning how I would go about sporting my soon to be bump, planning my new found clean eating and pregnancy friendly exercise regime, and just generally basking in my new found pregnant status, determined to remain looking and feeling fabulous. 

My winning ticket however was short lived. At around the 7 week mark I started feeling a bit off, and within days progressed to what I can only describe as what it must feel like to be in hell – I had Hyperemesis Gravidarum, also known as acute morning sickness. 

I went off work, unable to function beyond vomiting and sucking on Hydralyte ice blocks. With the celebration of being pregnant well and truly over I contemplated how I was going to live with the possibility of having nausea and vomiting for the next 8 months.

After exhausting all other medications, it was suggested that I go on a drug called Zofran, or its generic name ondansetron. Known to block the actions or chemicals in the body that trigger nausea and vomiting, Zofran is generally only used to prevent nausea and vomiting caused by surgery or medicine used to treat cancer. Although assigned to pregnancy category B by the FDA, recommending Zofran only be used during pregnancy when benefit outweighs the risk, we did find one study in Denmark suggesting no negative affect.

Despite our findings and after much deliberation my husband and I decided we would hold off on taking Zofran, if for nothing more than at least the first trimester. As we were holding off on the Zofran, we went on to try every remedy known to man in the hope of subsiding the vomiting. I tried Hydralyte, Gatorade, lemons, hard boiled lollies, fruit mentos, walking, sunshine, flat lemonade, yoga, ginger beer, ginger chews, ginger tea, ginger biscuits, ice chips, acupuncture, swimming, almonds, cider vinegar, relaxation, sea bands, aniseed, vitamin B6, dry crackers, raising the mattress, the yoga tongue pull and licorice. But there was literally nothing that gave me any reprieve to the constant vomiting and nausea.

The next 5 weeks was an absolute blur. All I can remember is laying on the floor thinking I was surely going to die. I could not watch television. I could not read. I could not speak. I could not move. All I could do was vomit. I did not care about anyone or anything else. I was completely consumed in my own misery. So much so that my husband, a very practical and matter of fact man, would often attempt to pull me out of my own self pity. On one occasion I recall him telling me that I was not the first person to have ever suffered such horrific pregnancy related sickness, and that there are many other women that are in fact a lot worse off than I. Now a smarter man would have stopped there, however my husband, being my husband, then went on to tell me that there would no doubt be women living in remote African villages suffering from HG, however despite being so sick, still had to push themselves up off the dirt floor and out of their wooden huts to walk 10km to the nearest river, only to then have to collect 50 gallons of water to which they would perch on top of their heads, before carrying it back to the village. As you can imagine this did not go down so well and needless to say my husband’s future attempts at drawing me out of my misery were a little less inspiring. 

When 12 weeks came and went and there was no change to the monotonous hell I was in, with mixed emotions I started on Zofran. Despite not eradicating the constant nausea, nor getting rid of the daily vomiting, Zofran did manage to take the edge off and above all else it enabled me go back to work.

Having HG really took its toll, not just physically but also mentally. Sadly not only for me but also for those around me. For what should be one of the most happy and joyous times in your life, it is beyond devastating to be feeling so miserable and unhappy for such a long period of time. One of my biggest fears during pregnancy was that having HG would scar me for life. That my new found miserable state was my new normal. And that even after the arrival of our baby I would not know how to be myself anymore. I recall that I literally couldn’t remember what it was like to not feel so sick, to not constantly feel nauseous, and to remember what it felt like to go just one day without vomiting.

Thankfully a lot of exposure has been brought to HG in recent years. And now people have some understanding of the toll it can take. It is however a hard illness to have diagnosed and as you still look ‘normal’, often people will fail to believe or understand how very sick you are. Although I suffered with both vomiting and nausea right up until the moment our beautiful baby boy was born, there are other HG sufferers that are a lot worse off than I. Many regularly hospitalized, many needing permanent IV’s or pumps to administer both fluid and medication, and tragically there are even some women so sick that pregnancies are terminated. 

Despite it having been an extremely tough time in our life, as every woman will tell you that has had a rough pregnancy, every ounce of pain and suffering suddenly seems pretty insignificant when you finally get to gaze into the eyes of your newborn. I certainly haven’t forgotten what I went through to get here, and to be honest my pregnancy has certainly made having a newborn a walk in the park, however I guess I know now that no matter the journey, we are ultimately all winners in the end. And what is most ironic, the more women I speak to, even women that I was convinced had won the Pregnancy Lotto, have shared with me their own rough journey, and I have concluded that maybe ‘The Pregnancy Lotto’ doesn’t even exist. That maybe ‘The Pregnancy Lotto’ is something we have just manufactured in our own heads. Maybe us pregnant women really are all the same, just on different journey’s but all ultimately leading to the same prize.