Excessive vomiting in pregnancy, active component service women, U.S. Armed Forces, 2005-2014

Up to 80% of women experience some form of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. However, in some women, nausea and vomiting can be excessive and require inpatient and/or outpatient treatment. Data were obtained on 149,071 live births from 116,510 service women from 1 January 2005 through 31 December 2014. A total of 19,175 of the service women with live births had pregnancies complicated by excessive vomiting in pregnancy (EVP) and accounted for 20,511 EVP cases (overall rate of 13.8%). Mild and severe hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) combined accounted for almost two-thirds of the total EVP cases. The slight increase observed in the annual rate of EVP between 2005 and 2014 was driven largely by the outpatient trend for mild HG. Together, mild and severe HG accounted for three-quarters of all hospital bed days for EVP. About one-third of the women with EVP-complicated pregnancies had two or more EVP-related medical encounters. A better awareness of this medical condition, severity of its symptoms, and their effect on a woman's functioning is needed to provide effective interventions that protect a woman's health-related functional status.