It is also useful to determine the mother's subjective view of the degree of severity of her condition, using a visual analogue scale. While there are specific validated scales for assessing nausea and vomiting, these tend to take a medical focus, considering primarily the frequency and duration of measurable signs and symptoms and do not, in the opinion of this author, give sufficient validity to the psychoemotional and social effects of nausea and vomiting on the mother and her family. The midwife should ask the mother to assess her biopsychosocial wellbeing, using a simple scale of 1-1o; as symptoms improve and the mother's grading out of ten declines, she will recognise that she is feeling better, irrespective of how she chooses to measure her condition. The mother's perception may be influenced by the number of vomitin episodes, the duration and intensity of nausea the combination of accompanying symptoms or the difficulties of continuing to work or look after her family It is irrelevant how she arrives at her score, but can be important after treatment commences to help her to understand that she feels better in some way.