Channel 7 star Abbey Gelmi opens up on pregnancy health battle

Abbey Gelmi has opened up about her pregnancy health struggles, revealing she became a recluse and thought she was dying after being struck down by a debilitating condition.

Abbey Gelmi has opened up about her pregnancy health struggles, revealing in the depths of her battle that she became a recluse and thought she was dying.

The Channel 7 sport presenter is expecting her second child with fiance and Richmond premiership star Kane Lambert.

She has suffered with hyperemesis gravidarum — the same condition which has struck down the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton — and also found out she has gestational diabetes.

Speaking candidly on the Missta Mums podcast, Gelmi said she had endured constant vomiting and hospitalisation.

“Probably once a week I wake up and vomit but that’s really so mild compared to what it was. Every day, like every day, dry reaching, vomiting, whatever I ate first, I would vomit back up again, and then I would crawl back into bed, and I would manage maybe a piece of toast, but even then that was a struggle,’’ Gelmi told hosts Demi Duncan and Melinda Baxter.

Channel 7 presenter Abbey Gelmi felt weak and tired during her pregnancy health struggles. Picture: Instagram

“If I drank water, I’d vomit.

“If I didn’t know better, I would just think I was dying, and you’d have an idea in your mind of what you think you might be able to eat, your family then lovingly prepare that for you,

only to have you then throw that all back up again, and you just feel so weak and tired. And also mentally, like if you put anyone in a dark room where they don’t leave bed or see light for two months, you do become a recluse because you’re not telling people that you’re pregnant.

“So you’re not sharing what’s actually happening to you, or there’s very few people that really understand what you’re going through.

“So you do naturally become really quite reclusive. And it’s just this really, really hard thing to then dig yourself back out of. And I remember saying to Kane, and I was like, at the end of this, I’m looking up and all I see is waves.

Gelmi and fiance Kane Lambert are expecting their second baby. Picture: AFL Photos

“And because if I get GD, that’s just another thing I need to deal with. And then there’s birth, which at this point sounds like a holiday. And then, but on the other side of that, you’ve got a newborn that you remember what that phase was like and just how exhausted you are, but I’m starting from empty.”

Gelmi and Lambert welcomed son Louis in March last year. She said dealing with hyperemesis was the hardest thing she’s ever done but it did help that other mums and friends Emma Hawkins and Emma Vosti had shared their experiences.

She said it’s so treatable but there’s a stigma around the condition.

“I’m super fortunate, it seems to only be the first trimester where it really knocks me around,’’ Gelmi said.

“But this time, and I think it’s because we already had beautiful Louis, who’s a very busy one and a half year old, you can’t rest the way that you usually would. So I ended up being in hospital every second day on a drip.

The pair welcomed a baby boy, Louis, in March 2023.

“I lost a lot of weight, which is just really scary when you’re pregnant because you’re already thinking you want to have reserves for kids and make sure they’re getting the right thing.

“And when you just can’t keep anything down, it’s really not helpful. I was just in bed and unable to care for Louis, unable to work, unable to really do anything.

“And again, you’re in that early stage of pregnancy where you’re not telling people yet because you’re not in that safe time that they tell you that’s the right time to let people know. And it was just, it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Hyperemesis is so far beyond the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

Gelmi at her baby shower for Louis. Picture: Instagram

Gelmi said she also had to get her around the work situation given she’s such a professional but needed to take time off from her dream job.

She admits she’s “pretty self-critical” but had to learn to look after herself.

“All of a sudden you’re like, if I don’t do this again, or for whatever reason I don’t return to work, then who am I without it? And forever it had come first for me. And it’s just been the most monumental shift in how I see myself, but also how I prioritise everything else since bringing a little life into the world and you don’t know and you don’t care.

“Like as long as you’re present with your kid, you really don’t care what you just did that day. And there’s something so beautiful about that, because it’s the stuff that actually matters. I’m really grateful to have learned that lesson because I kept detaching value to what I do for work. At one point everyone’s replaceable.”