A renewed push for improved care has brought hope to thousands of women facing a rare and severe pregnancy condition.
The focus is on hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), a condition that affects around 30,000 women each year and causes extreme sickness during pregnancy.
A Westminster meeting, secured by James MacCleary, Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, has raised hopes for better national support.
Mr MacCleary said: "HG is one of the most debilitating conditions a woman can face, yet for far too long it has been dismissed as something to ‘push through’.
"I’ve seen this first-hand with my partner, and the stories shared with us were deeply distressing and reveal just how much the system is still failing women.
"No one should be denied effective medication, turned away from care or made to feel they are exaggerating their symptoms."
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His intervention, including a question to the Prime Minister, highlighted the "postcode lottery" in access to diagnosis and treatment of the condition, which leads to around 37,000 hospital admissions annually.
HG can cause relentless vomiting, dehydration, rapid weight loss and serious mental health decline.
One in four women with the condition experience suicidal thoughts, and five per cent terminate otherwise wanted pregnancies due to the severity of the illness and lack of proper care.
At the meeting, women’s health minister Baroness Merron acknowledged that too many women are "dismissed or denied effective medication."
She pledged to review prescribing variation, improve clinician training, and ensure HG voices are heard in the renewed women’s health strategy.
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