Whenever there's a royal wedding, waiting for the news that a royal
heir is on the way is always the next step. Less than two years after
Britain's Prince William wed his bride Catherine Middleton, word of a
royal pregnancy was eagerly anticipated. Now we know Catherine is having
a baby.
But the world didn't find out in the form of a photo
revealing a conspicuous baby bump. Rather, the news broke when
Buckingham Palace announced Monday the Duchess of Cambridge has been
"admitted ... to King Edward VII Hospital in Central London with
hyperemesis gravidarum," - which means excessive vomiting during
pregnancy.
As most mothers can attest, feeling nauseated during pregnancy is not unusual, so why is the duchess hospitalized?
There
are no details from the royal family, but hyperemesis gravidarum is a
fairly common condition for women who are sensitive to the higher
hormone levels that come with pregnancy. Each month during a woman's
menstrual cycle, the estrogen circulating through her body rises, says
Dr. James Liu, who is the chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and
Gynecology at MacDonald Women's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio.
"But
once a woman achieves pregnancy the ovary at the beginning and later on
the placenta makes much higher levels of estrogen and progesterone; and
very high levels of estrogen in general can have an effect on a part of
the brain called the chemoreceptor zone and it causes nausea." During
pregnancy, the hormone levels can rise 100 to 1,000 times the amount of a
normal menstrual cycle.
Extreme nausea and vomiting during
pregnancy may occur if a woman is carrying more than one baby, according
to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Another possible cause for
higher hormone levels leading to excessive nausea is something called
abnormal placentation, where the placenta overgrows, says Liu, adding
that this happens only occasionally.
Usually, excessive vomiting
is treated on an outpatient basis, where the mom-to-be is given
anti-nausea medication, usually in pill form. But vomiting can lead to
dehydration - a concern for a pregnant woman.
If she is very
dehydrated, being in the hospital allows her to get fluids
intravenously. Her electrolytes or blood minerals may also be somewhat
abnormal, which can be corrected through an IV too.
If she's been
vomiting a lot, she probably hasn't been able to keep oral anti-nausea
medication down - another reason she may be hospitalized and receive IV
medication, says Liu, who is not involved in the duchess' care.
The
severity of nausea during pregnancy varies from woman to woman, Liu
says. Some may experience nausea but may not vomit, while others may be
very sensitive, vomit excessively and are unable to keep fluids down.
The
good news is that the nausea usually goes away by the end of the first
trimester, says Liu. "The first 12 weeks of the pregnancy is the most
common time we see this."
