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Healthcare professionals

Support is Vital

"The support I received over the past 6 weeks helped get me through what has been the toughest time of my life. Having someone who really who really understood the condition give advice helped us through and crucially, at times, gave me really useful information I didn't get from my own medical practitioners. In my experience, HG is such a debilitating and lonely struggle, the more support you get the better chance you have of surviving it" - Lisa, from London.

Support is Vital

"The support I received over the past 6 weeks helped get me through what has been the toughest time of my life. Having someone who really who really understood the condition give advice helped us through and crucially, at times, gave me really useful information I didn't get from my own medical practitioners. In my experience, HG is such a debilitating and lonely struggle, the more support you get the better chance you have of surviving it" - Lisa, from London.

For a general summary of global HG research, please visit the Hyperemesis Research Foundation website.

 

More research is needed to understand the causes, treatments and consequences of HG. We have outlined some of the ongoing research projects in Ireland below:

IRIS Clinic Evaluation

A multidisciplinary HG day-case service (IRIS Clinic) was launched in 2020  at The National Maternity Hospital, Dublin. The clinic provides routine, day-case care in a comfortable space with pre-booked appointments. The multidisciplinary involves midwives, dietitians, perinatal mental health, obstetrics and pharmacy, and the nature of the clinic enables peer-to-peer support. As this clinic is the first of its kind in Ireland, the researchers aim to assess its effectiveness and feasibility, and suggest recommendations for improvement.

Principle investigator: Dr Eileen O’Brien, School of Biological, Health and Sports Science, Technological University Dublin (eileen.obrien@tudublin.ie) Dr O'Brien is also a Trustee

Research midwife: Jean Doherty, National Maternity Hospital, Dublin (jean.doherty@nmh.ie)

Links to publications: 

The IRIS clinic: A Protocol for a mixed-methods study evaluating the management of Hyperemesis Gravidarum: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2451865423001734

Women's experiences of Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) and of attending a dedicated multi-disciplinary hydration clinic: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1871519223000999?via%3Dihub

 

EMPOWER-HG

Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) can lead to malnutrition and other complications for the woman and fetus. There is limited information about the nutritional needs of women with HG and access to nutrition support varies. Individual consultations with a dietitian are helpful, but there is increasing demand for these services and resources are limited. Antenatal group education has been shown to improve nutritional knowledge among pregnant women, but it has not been studied in women with HG. The use of a self-completed nutrition checklist could help women to understand their own dietary intakes, which may reduce the need for intensive dietetic intervention.

The aims of this study are to describe the nutritional intakes of women with HG who attend an intensive HG intervention (IRIS clinic). Nutritional intakes will be compared before and after the intervention. The study will also determine which type of clinical dietetic support is most beneficial for women.

Principle investigators: 

Dr Eileen O’Brien, School of Biological, Health and Sports Science, Technological University Dublin (eileen.obrien@tudublin.ie)

Dr Sarah Louise Killeen, National Maternity Hospital, Dublin (sarahlouise.killeen@nmh.ie)

 

Hyperemesis and Mental Health project 

Principle investigator: Dr Angela Flynn (angelaflynn@rcsi.ie)

 

Research collaborations

If you are a researcher and would like to collaborate with Hyperemesis Ireland, please contact hyperemesisireland[at]gmail.com.

 

Funding for HG research

We do not have a funding stream for research at present, however The Bikkja Trust is a UK charity that funds research into HG. More information available here: https://www.bikkjatrust.org/