Royal’s extreme morning sickness is rare

PHOENIX — Britain’s Duchess of Cambridge, aka Kate Middleton, remains hospitalized with an acute form of morning sickness.

Valley obstetrician/gynecologist Stephen Frausto said eating a few crackers will help with typical morning sickness, but Kate has a condition called hyperemis gravidarum.

“When we begin to talk about hyperemesis, we’re really sliding up the spectrum in severity,” said Frausto. “We’re talking about women who have severe vomiting that’s not responsive to the usual therapies.”

Frausto, with Tempe St. Luke’s Hospital, said that women who suffer from extreme morning sickness can lose 5 percent of their body weight in about a week.

If left untreated the baby won’t get enough calories and the mother could suffer seizures.

“The usual course of treatment is to start an IV, get hydration first initially to correct some of the electrolyte disturbances, so if they have low potassium or low sodium, we want to correct that pretty quickly in their admission process,” Frausto said.

A typical hospitalization lasts two to three days.