Before I had my son I always envisioned pregnancy as one of the most beautiful times in a women’s life, unfortunately my pregnancy was far from ideal.
For starters my pregnancy didn’t start off as one of the happiest moments of my life -because, at the same time that I was celebrating the fact that I was going to be a mother, I also cried because my beautiful mother was deteriorating from leukemia.
Calling my mom to tell her the big news that I was pregnant was one of my biggest highlights! I still remember her voice until this day. When she heard the news, she cried, she laughed and in that moment we shared our first moments, not just as mother and daughter but as moms.
Unfortunately as my pregnancy progressed I couldn’t continue doing simple activities or chores I once did such as visiting her at the hospital everyday or even taking a shower on my own, brushing my hair and even eating became impossible.
One morning right when I started approaching my 8 week pregnancy mark, I threw up more than usual, to be exact it was 18 times that morning. When my husband saw how I could not stop uncontrollably vomiting, he called my mom and desperately asked her if this was normal, laying on the bathroom floor desperate to feel better, I thought I would not survive my pregnancy. My husband rushed to the bathroom, picked me up and told me how my mom said that we should go to the emergency room right away, so we headed to the ER.
Malnourished, frail and desperate for relief, the nurses and doctors ran numerous blood tests, scans and check ups on me, all while I was hooked up to a few bags of IV fluids along with a drip line of zofran (a strong medication they give to cancer patients who suffer harsh side effects from chemo) as I laid in my hospital gown I couldn’t help but be confused on why they decided to give me the one medication my mother was on from her own side effects. Come to find out zofran was exactly what I needed to help stop my vicious cycle of constant vomiting and pain.
So after waiting for what felt like hours finally a doctor came in with answers, he told me what I had is medically known as: Hypermesis Graverdium. When I heard him say those words, the first thing I thought was the worst, What was going to happen to me? What about my baby? Luckily before my thoughts got carried away he reassured us that the baby was healthy but unfortunately my body was not taking pregnancy so well, which is what caused my hormones to go all over the place and has caused me to throw up so much. He was confident that with weekly checkups, monitoring and taking my medications I would be okay and get through this nightmare. He warned us that it wouldn’t be easy but it would be worth it.
As a nervous new mom to be, my first thoughts were that even though I desperately wanted a natural pregnancy, I knew that my babies health was first priority, so I sucked it up, did what I was told and took my medicine everyday until the day I gave birth.
With constant monitoring, blood tests and nausea up until my third trimester I finally started growing stronger towards the end, all thanks to my medicine and doctors, except my mother became weaker. On my 7th month of pregnancy, my mom passed away.
Knowing that my mom would never be able to see me as a mother, meet my little boy or give me a helping hand after I’ve had a long or hard day was beyond painful, but with every sad tear my baby kicked to remind me to be strong for him. So, being strong was my only choice, again.
The day my son was born was the happiest day of my life, filled with so many happy and sad emotions. Emotions of relief that the fight with my own body was over, relief that I could stop taking medications everyday, but the emotions I felt were also sad. Sad because both my mother and father were not here to witness their daughter becoming a mom for the first time, knowing that my son will never have my parents as his grandparents ripped me apart from inside but I knew that everything I went through and endured in my pregnancy was worth it in the end for my pride and joy.
Now that my son is approaching his second birthday I decided I would share my story to encourage other mothers who may have HG or suffered from HG in past, to let you all know that you can get through this, you can fight and in the end it will all be worth it.
I also wanted to share this story so that I could share that through all of the pain, hardships and constant battle that I felt with myself while going through HG, I am now ready to endure this again, except this time I will be more prepared.
I invite you to follow me on my journey on preparing my body to take on another pregnancy within the next 6 months to a year. I decided to wait at least 6 months because after researching and speaking with numerous naturopaths, doctors, and speaking with many women who have had healthy pregnancies after suffering from an HG pregnancy in the past, I am confident that I can help my body take pregnancy on as it should. I am confident that I can do this through a healthy protocol which will include: proper nutrition, elimination, gentle liver detox, a wide variety of supplements, medication on hand just case things don’t go as planned and the support from mothers like you, who are looking for answers too.
Stay tuned this week to see what supplements I plan to take and how I plan to do this. Do you want to read details on what I did to get through my daily struggles? Stay tuned and feel free to write your questions & comments below.
Xo,
Pretty Organic Mommy
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If you are into chai tea they also have their own version of a dirty chai which has raw cacao, chi seasonings and no refined sugars! Sweeten it up naturally with maple syrup, honey or coconut sugar- yumm! 
