Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

One in 50 pregnant women are affected by hyperemesis, a pregnancy sickness so severe that it leaves them weak, dehydrated and malnourished, writes SHARON DEMPSEY.

“I think we are all conditioned into thinking pregnancy is not an illness so that it is hard to admit you are really suffering and I certainly thought people wouldn’t take me seriously. Luckily I have been treated very well.