Christmas will never feel the same again
The couple tell LUCY BENYON how extreme morning sickness drained them of festive spirit
AS PARENTS to two young sons, the run-up to Christmas should be a magical time for Olympic hero Greg Rutherford and his fiancée Susie Verrill. But as the festive frenzy has gathered pace, they have been haunted by bad memories; three years ago Susie was so ill with the pregnancy complication hyperemesis gravidarum that she was unable to leave her bed.
“I didn’t wash my hair for almost two months, and I was being sick up to 50 times a day,” says the 31-year-old writer, who became severely underweight and developed anxiety as a direct result of the illness which blighted her pregnancy with the couple’s younger son Rex, now two.
“On Christmas Day, I remember trying to sit up in bed to eat and then throwing up Brussels sprouts into a carrier bag – I haven’t been able to go near once since.
“Just the smell of turkey can bring back all sorts of awful memories.
“This time of the year makes me very anxious and I don’t think Christmas will ever be the same again.”
Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) affects around one per cent of women, but for sufferers, including the Duchess of Cambridge, it can be mentally and physically devastating.
In addition to extreme sickness, dehydration and weight loss, they can experience an aversion to smell, hallucinations and excessive saliva production – an embarrassing symptom known as ptyalism.
Although there is no definitive cause, if a woman experiences HG in one pregnancy, she has a very high chance – in one study it is estimated at around 80 per cent – of developing the complication in subsequent pregnancies.
IN MANY cases, the symptoms start to ease halfway through the pregnancy but, for some, they can last throughout.
Treatments include anti-sickness medication and IV fluids, but there is no cure, and research reveals that around one in 10 women with HG will opt for a termination because they find the condition unbearable. Susie’s extreme symptoms began when she was seven weeks pregnant and didn’t abate until she was into her second trimester. Although she’d experienced bad nausea in her first pregnancy with Milo, now five, she hadn’t suffered from HG.
“There is a world of difference between normal morning sickness and HG,” says Susie, who at her worst couldn’t even have Greg or Milo, then two, in the same room, as even the slightest movement or hint of odour could provoke extreme vomiting.
“Telling a woman with HG her symptoms are normal is the biggest insult ever.You’re not simply feeling sick – you fail to function and just become this awful shell of a person.
“At my worst, if someone had offered me a million pounds if I crawled down the hall to the bathroom to clean my teeth, I’d have refused. I was simply too terrified to move.”
If it hadn’t been for the constant care she received from Greg and her mum, Susie doesn’t know how she would have survived.
“They were amazing. Greg would spend hours just holding my sick bowl or trying to find me something I could eat. He bought all Milo’s presents that year, put up the tree and cooked Christmas dinner for my entire family.”
Watching his normally happy and healthy partner suffer in such a way was torture for Greg, 33, who became a national hero when he won the gold medal for long jump at the 2012 London Games.
“It was a nightmare seeing Susie so unwell and it hurt so much that she couldn’t look after Milo, as she was still breastfeeding and they’d always been so close,” he says.
Unable to sleep or keep anything down, Susie was eventually admitted to hospital to have intravenous fluids and begged for anti-sickness medication which did at least take the edge off her suffering. But one doctor’s advice was stark: “He told me that if I didn’t eat, my baby would die.”
“It was a shocking thing to hear but somehow I knew the baby would be OK,” adds Greg who sought advice from a doctor friend. “My concern was actually for Susie and how ill she was.”
Women with HG don’t always get the medical support they need which is why Susie has become an ambassador for the charity Pregnancy Sickness Support, which is committed to improving care.The charity is also challenging a recent European Medicines Agency recommendation that pregnant women should no longer be prescribed ondansetron, one of the most effective anti-sickness drugs for HG.
This is because it raises the risk of having a baby with a cleft lip from 11 in 10,000 to 14 in 10,000.
However, other studies have revealed that malnourishment as a result of HG leads to a higher risk of having a child with autism, which is why anti-sickness medication is crucial.
SUSIE was never offered ondansetron, though she admits she’d have taken it in a heartbeat if it had helped to ease the sickness.
“All I wanted was a few minutes of reprieve, and I’d have done anything to get that,” says Susie, who gave birth to Rex at 36 weeks when he weighed 7lb 7oz.
He’s had no health problems as a result of the difficult pregnancy, but Susie has been left with damaged teeth due to all the vomiting and a resurgence of anxiety – something she hadn’t experienced since childhood.
“It is particularly bad at this time of year, which is why I avoid busy shopping centres, bright lights and all that festive music,” she says. “It takes me back to that awful time.”
Sadly, mental health issues often go hand in hand with HG, as sufferers experience far higher rates of anxiety and depression and a substantially greater risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder after birth.
Not surprisingly, many of these women choose not to get pregnant again, but Susie admits she and Greg would like more children.
“It has to be Susie’s decision,” says Greg. “The thought of her going through that, or even worse again, makes me feel dreadful and we’d have to have proper care in place.”
For now, though, the couple are looking forward to a quiet Christmas with their boys. “It will be a simple affair,” says Susie. “But we’ll still make it special.”
For information and support on HG, visit pregnancysicknesssupport.org.uk or call the charity on 024 7638 2020.