Sinead Corcoran Dye’s pregnancy diary: ‘My battle with hyperemesis’

Sinead Corcoran Dye shares her experience with hyperemesis gravidarum. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

What does Sinead have in common with the Princess of Wales? The same pregnancy condition where sufferers get sick of being sick.

I have never minded vomiting. That was until I got pregnant and developed hyperemesis gravidarum, a condition characterised by severe nausea, vomiting, weight loss and dehydration – which often results in hospitalisation.

You might have heard of it because Kate Middleton famously suffered from it during her pregnancies.

There is no cure for hyperemesis gravidarum because nobody knows exactly what causes it. Doctors will often prescribe anti-nausea medication to help, but for me it does nothing.

I have spent much of the past five months of my pregnancy either in bed or on the couch, clutching a bucket. I did go to a friend’s birthday and had to leave early. I vomited on the footpath outside the restaurant. I went to see Magic Mike’s Last Dance and had to run out to be sick and it was only partially because the movie was so bad. These have been my only two outings.

On a good day I will vomit two to three times. On a bad day it will be upwards of 20.

I’m so sick even finding a TV show to watch takes too much energy, so I stare at hot 19-year-olds doing dance routines on TikTok for at least eight hours a day. I hate them. I want to be them.

Thankfully I’m a freelance writer so I can choose my own hours, which recently have been only the time it takes to write this column. I honestly don’t know how people with full-time jobs or other children to take care of manage it.

I also don’t know how I’d survive this if I was single. My husband is now basically my carer, and the scenes he comes home to are just appalling. I’m sprawled on the couch, unshowered and wearing pyjamas, surrounded by dirty dishes and Uber Eats containers, like a teenage boy’s bedroom.

My husband is also now so used to this way of life that nothing fazes him. Just the other day he was working from home, and I accidentally and violently vomited on the ground next to his feet. He didn’t even look up from his laptop.

I was secretly so excited for the weight loss part of HG, but for some ungodly reason, despite vomiting every crumb I eat I am stacking on weight at rapid pace.

I hope and pray that this will end soon, but I’ve heard horror stories of some women with HG vomiting right up until their babies are born.

In my experience most people don’t really “get” how awful and debilitating the condition is – they think it’s not really different from morning sickness, but it is and it’s hard on the whole family. I hold this assumption that people don’t get it because I have not received a single care package or chicken nugget delivery in my entire bedbound five months, and gifts are my love language.

If you know someone with HG who is as greedy as me, send them a little treat or just pop round for a visit and if you’re a very good friend, empty their bucket. Just don’t suggest they try ginger biscuits, because you will be the 300th person to do so and they won’t thank you.