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29 Weeks with Extreme Nausea

QUESTION

Dear Midwife,
I will be 29 weeks pregnant tomorrow, and am completely miserable. I have been sick since 6w4d and after trying (one I can't remember), Phenergan, Compozine, 4 mg and 8 mg of Reglan, and all the over the counter stuff, I am still really sick.

I am nauseous pretty much 24 hours a day, and when I do eat, I feel that my food is stuck in my esophagus, and it makes me want to throw up. Sometimes I force myself to throw up because I am so uncomfortable.

I have talked to my ob/gyn and a GI doctor and they pretty much said they can't do anything for me. I supposedly have debris in my gallbladder and a "stomach emptying" problem, but nothing I do seems to help. Smaller meals and/or different foods do nothing to help.

Do you think this is truly pregnancy related, or could it be something else? Do you have any suggestions? I really don't want to deal with this for another 11 weeks, and don't know if I can!

ANSWER

I don't know your whole history, so I don't know for sure, but you might try some over the counter Zantac and see if that relieves the "stuck" feeling in your esophagus.

It is really important to stay hydrated, so measure out your 2 liters or half gallon of water to be drunk every day, and don't go to bed until it's down. It's best to sip it rather than to drink huge glasses of water.

Finally, *anything* you can do to reduce your anxiety would go a long ways towards solving the problem. Yoga, meditation, prayer, the comedy channel or watching funny movies--whatever works for you. Thinking about it all the time just makes it worse, right? so try to have some fun every day, enjoy life the best you can, and remind yourself that you will be holding your baby before you know it!

-- Cynthia, CNM. PhD.

Cynthia Flynn

Cynthia Flynn, CNM. PhD, is the General Director of the Family Health and Birth Center which provides prenatal, birth, postnatal, gynecological and primary health care to underserved women and their families in Washington, D.C. Recently Cynthia served as Associate Professor of Nursing at Seattle University. There she not only taught, but remained in full scope clinical midwifery practice at Valley Medical Center where she cared for pregnant and birthing women, and practices well-woman gynecology, family planning, and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.

Cynthia founded Columbia Women's Clinic and Birth Center, where she took care of pregnant women and infants up to two weeks of age and attended both birth center and hospital births. Before Cynthia earned her CNM, she worked as a registered nurse in labor and delivery and postpartum and is a certified Doula and Doula trainer.