Crying into my cappuccino

You would think that, 5 years after having my youngest, I'd be over it by now. But sometimes something triggers memories and emotions that are buried deep inside. To be fair, it hasn't happened for a long time but a few days ago, completely out of the blue, it happened again. I'd taken the children to a local coffee shop for a babyccino. As I stood in the queue two women came over to say hello ... it was my community midwives from when I was pregnant with my children.

After we'd hugged and chatted briefly, they left. Then, as I sat down with our drinks, I started to shake and my eyes filled up. I tried to hold it in but found myself having to explain to my children why mummy was crying into her cappuccino.

Pregnancy was not a good time for me and seeing my midwives after all this time brought back memories I'd prefer to forget. My experience is relatively minor though compared to others and many sufferers of hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) have much more severe, longer lasting symptoms than me. HG robs the woman of an important life event and sufferers experience misery, anxiety and feelings of loss. Pregnancy, which should be a special and happy time, is a physical and mental trauma. So it's not surprising that poor mental health and depression are common both before and after birth and some women go on to suffer symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder.

For more information on HG and mental health, including links to useful resources, please see the Pregnancy Sickness Support website.

I'm taking on three challenges in 2016 to help Pregnancy Sickness Support raise enough money to put its information leaflets in Bounty's Pregnancy Information Packs. This would enable it to reach every single mum-to-be in the UK with details of the support the charity can provide to sufferers and their families. My first challenge is a triathlon in less than 4 weeks! You can read about my three challenges here and can support the campaign by texting NOHG16 £5 to 70070. THANK YOU!!