When does it become dangerous?
Morning sickness only becomes dangerous when it develops into the clinical picture of “hyperemesis gravidarum”. However, the transitions to this condition are fluid and cannot be clearly defined. Alarming, however, should be daily, repeated and strong vomiting, in which the pregnant woman does not manage to take in enough liquid (about 2-3l water or tea) or her usual amount of food.
This can also occur at night and on an empty stomach. The loss of fluid and electrolytes (the blood salts), can lead to serious symptoms, as in non-pregnant people.The most dangerous of these are dehydration (“desiccosis“), a shift between acids and bases in the body (“acidosis or alkalosis“) or cardiac arrhythmia (“arrhythmias”). In principle, dehydration is a danger for all organs in the body, as well as for the pregnant woman and the growing child.
The pregnant woman and her child are at risk if they suffer from dizziness or fainting spells (beware of falls! ), severe listlessness, persistent constipation, little and dark yellow urine, cramps or confusion, and sudden severe pain in the legs (see thrombosis) or flank pain in the kidney area (lateral lower back). Whether a person is at risk of dehydration can easily be determined by testing the standing skin folds: in this case, the skin on the back of the hand is pulled up to a skin fold with two fingers.
If this skin fold remains standing and sinks only very slowly down to the back of the hand, the pregnant woman should urgently visit an emergency room to receive an infusion and further care. If a pregnant woman should experience the above-mentioned symptoms, it is important to inform bystanders in case she faints and to be able to alert an ambulance as soon as possible. However, the clinical picture of hyperemesis gravidarum described here occurs in only about 0.5% of all pregnant women.
