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- Page navigation anchor for Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy is not just 'morning sickness'Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy is not just 'morning sickness'As a GP who has had pregnancy sickness at all times of day and night during three pregnancies in the past few years, I couldn't agree more that the term 'morning sickness' is unhelpful. However, I would suggest that the phrase 'Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy' is just as unhelpful and unlikely to catch on for different reasons. It is long and over detailed and therefore not going to be used by individuals. Language choice is particularly important when trying to be discreet in questioning or answering as is often the case in early pregnancy. Who has answered a concerned friend or colleague with a quick 'I'm ok but it's nausea and vomiting in pregnancy'. People just don't talk that way. I would suggest that the use of a non-practical term by health professionals actually pushes the general population to stick with the user-friendly if inaccurate 'morning sickness'. I therefore suggest that we should aim to replace it with 'pregnancy sickness' as mentioned by the authors, which is simple, practical and just generalisable enough to include both nausea and vomiting which can occur separately or together. I think if health care professionals really want the phrase 'morning sickness' to be replaced by the general population we need to lead by example by offering and using a comfortable alternative term in our own conversation and consultation codes.Competing Interests: None declared.
- Page navigation anchor for BAME women must be represented in researchBAME women must be represented in researchI read the recent paper of Gadsby et al. with interest, and commend them for their work in exploring women's experiences of nausea and vomiting in pregnancy (NVP), and for trying to steer language use away from the problematic phrase 'morning sickness'.1I was disappointed, however, that their study had a distinct lack of diversity in the participants, with 95% of participants being identifying as white.1 The most recent census data from 2011 showed that only 86% of the UK population was white.2 Research has also shown that Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women are disproportionately affected by NVP and hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), both in terms of how likely they are to be affected and how severely they are affected.3 No methodological or otherwise legitimate reason was given for failing to recruit a higher proportion of BAME women in the study. Given the increased risk for BAME women, it seems like a missed opportunity to explore BAME women's experiences of NVP.Gadsby et al. discuss the problems with the phrase 'morning sickness' trivialising the experiences of women suffering with NVP. Therefore, even greater consideration must be given to BAME women, as additional research has shown that BAME women often have concerns about not being believed in the context of maternity care and services.4...Show MoreCompeting Interests: None declared.