Amy Schumer's 'Glowing' Pregnancy Post is the Dose of Reality Our Employers Need

Amy Schumer is pretty well-known for being hilariously candid—her sketch comedy show was named Inside Amy Schumer, after all—so that’s why we’re pretty pumped the comedian has been sharing details about her pregnancy. If there’s anyone we can count on to keep it real, it’s Amy.

Case in point: Her hilarious Instagram snaps showing her not-so-funny struggles with hyperemesis gravidarum. (If you haven’t had the pleasure of HG during pregnancy, congrats! We envy you.)

Amy is currently pregnant with her first baby, with husband Chris Fischer, and her latest pic is the perfect example of her no-holds-barred honesty. In it, she’s sprawled on her sofa in sweats and hooked up to an IV. The caption reads, “Am I glowing?” (The obvious answer here is no. She looks miserable.)

This isn’t the first time Amy’s been candid about having HG. Back in November, she had to reschedule several shows on her tour after she was hospitalized with the condition. She shared the news in a photo of herself asleep in a hospital bed. “I’m fine. Baby’s fine but everyone who says the 2nd trimester is better is not telling the full story. I’ve been even more ill this trimester. I have hyperemesis and it blows,” she said in the caption.

It blows, indeed. HG isn’t just your standard morning sickness. It comes with severe nausea, vomiting, weight loss and sometimes dehydration—and it usually lasts until the 20th week of pregnancy, or even longer. The condition gained a bit more notoriety after Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, was hospitalized with it during her first pregnancy.

It’s rare, but not incredibly so. Between 0.5 percent and three percent of pregnant women suffer from HG, Sara Twogood, assistant professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at Keck Medicine of USC, told NBC.

And there are plenty of women who don’t get full-blown HG who still suffer through difficult or complicated pregnancies—pregnancies that make working either miserable or just plain impossible.

That’s why we love Amy’s honest look at HG. Staying quiet about our pregnancy and postpartum struggles isn’t working for women—our partners and employers think we’re fine and expect the same output as usual. But we’re not always fine. We’re creating a human life, and that miracle takes a lot of damn work. Sometimes we need an accommodation or two before we’re back to our kick-ass, hardworking selves.

Employers who are serious about retaining their talented working mom staffers will be more than happy to provide temporary relief to women who are struggling with a difficult pregnancy or postpartum recovery. That’s how to make a mom-to-be truly “glow.”

— Audrey Goodson Kingo