Gestational Diabetes :(

[Hollie506]

Hello...I posted this in 3rd tri, and they advised that I post it here as people here may be able to be of more help?

Hi All! I'm sure there's probably been loads of posts about this but I have just got the results from my glucose tests and it turns out that I have got Gestational diabetes...

I dont actually know what this means? Well, I've googled and I do know what it means "scientifically" but I wondered what it meant personally? As in do many people here have it? I saw a programme about it the other day and the woman gave birth to an absolutely HUGE baby!

Luckily I have a midwife appointment tomorrow to talk it over, but thought I might ask you ladies too. Sorry if this is a repeat thread, it's just a bit scary! xxx

 

[Floralaura]

Hii! I too have been blessed (lol) with GD, i found out at around the same time as you just before 28 weeks and has 2 MW's turn up at the door to inform me of it and give me loads of scan/clinic/MW appointments..and its bloody scary i agree BUT in reality its not so scary.
I like many others with GD am controlling it with just diet and succeeding so far..this means cutting out sugar (full fat pop, chocolate, sweets, biscuits, cakes etc) and lowering your carb intake too (white breads, chips, potato, crisps etc)..and testing you blood sugar during the day, i test before meals and bed on one day and 2hrs after meals on the next and alternate that way. You are given a certain level to be under when you test and if you get 3 highs in a row, say you are over 2hrs after breakfast when you test on the 2hr days then you have to ring the diabetes team up as you may need insulin..the levels you need to be under seem to vary around the country though.
Every 2 weeks i go to clinic where i have a growth scan, see a MW (for regular pregnancy checks) and a diabetes nurse (she will check the book they give you where you record your levels to see if you are ok)..every 4 weeks i also see a consultant (has a general pregnancy/diabetes chat with you) and have a blood test to check average sugar level in the blood over the past 6mths. I can also request to see the dietician when im at clinic but i only saw her the first time i went and havent since as i have been managing it fine.
I was petrified my Baby would be mahoosive but so far hes a average size and only measuring about 10 days ahead of dates and on track to be 8lb 9oz at 40 weeks, my DS was 8lb 8oz when born and i didnt have GD with him..some areas will induce you at 38 weeks if Baby is bigger than dates others will leave you but not let you go over your due date cause of strain on the placenta.
I was also petrified that this would harm, even kill my Baby..from what i have now been told its not going to..when born GD Babies may need help controlling their sugar levels and temperature so may need to stay in until this is done, this i can cope with and the risks of anything more serious are very low which is also good..its when GD isnt diagnosed that the bigger problems can happen, so we are luck in that respect.
For the first couple of weeks the whole thing is a bit daunting, all the finger pricking and going to eat something and thinking ''oh god am i allowed to eat this'' lol..but it does get better, i found it was a case of trial and error with foods and you quickly learn what you can and cant eat..for instance i can eat a KFC fillet meal with diet coke and be under my target, yet if i even just look a crumpets i go over lol. I wouldnt recommend diabetic chocolate for the choc cravings, its just not the same and can give you the runs..instead i have the treat size bars and will have one of those to curb the cravings and will be okay with that..so its all about moderation and trail and error.
I think im waffling now and have no idea how long this reply is so im going to stop now lol..but feel free to ask any Q's either here or via PM and i will do my best to answer..just remember it seems scary now but its manageable..xx

 

[lisaboo79]

i was diagnosed at 28 weeks, i was shocked and upset at the time but im dealing with it now, i have to take insulin before my tea in the evening, it was all a bit scary, but easy enough, i have had to have loads of extra appointments with the consultant and diabetes nurses and extra scans too, i have been told that with this condition they wont let me go more than 38 weeks in case of complications, but the baby has been measuring normal so far, in fact i had a scan on friday and one of the things they measured was low, so i am having an extra scan to make sure the baby isnt too small lol

its all a bit confusing, the consultant i saw on friday said they may deliver at 37 weeks now!

which is around boxing day

i thought though that the diabetes would be awful, but its not really as bad as all that, as long as you can control it

good luck

 

[dom85]

I was diagnosed at 28 weeks too. I thought that I would be OK with it as I have a very strong family history of Type 1 diabetes so I've been around needles etc for forever. However when I got it myself I realised how little I actually knew about the disease in pregnancy.

As the others have said, you may be able to control it with just your diet, but don't feel badly if you cant. I did everything I could, but after 3 weeks had to go on to insulin as my levels were just a bit too high. You will probably find the period between 28-32 weeks the hardest to control, firstly because you've only just been diagnosed and secondly because this is the time when there is the most stress on your body through the pregnancy, your hormones go crazy which affects your body's ability to produce insulin.

I think the most important thing to remember is that it will hopefully only be for a short while longer and try not to worry too much, you will get A LOT of extra monitoring. I was very well controlled on insulin, had growth scans every 4 weeks, saw the consultant and diabetic nurse every 2 weeks as well as the MW.

In my area they dont let anyone with GD go over 38 weeks, depending on how well controlled you are they deliver the baby between 36-38 weeks.

The biggest disappointment for me was the delivery because I felt that I didn't have a say at all in how my labour went. They follow very strict procedure here for GD induction so I didn't have a choice in a lot of what happened.

Be prepared for the induction process to take a while if you go in early. My body really wasn't ready and it took 4 days to get me into established labour. Once you get into established labour you have to have the foetal monitor on all the time, and you will also have 2 drips in each hand for the various drugs you need so you're pretty much immobile which is why I would definately recommend an epidural, they should do this a bit earlier as well then in other cases, with GD you can normally have it at about 4cm. It can help to control your blood sugar in labour as pain produces certain chemicals that can affect your blood sugar.

In my experience, they will tell you a lot about how to control the GD but you should also discuss your delivery with them as well so you feel a bit more prepared for it.

There's a lot of on here that have been through it though, so if you have any questions we're all here and feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

 

[Floralaura]

Thank you Dom85 for mentioning the birth, this is something nobody had discussed with me..i have asked and hen been told to ask 'blah' and they then tell me to go ask 'blah' and so on..so here i am at 35 weeks tomorrow and have no idea what they are going to do with me, especially as at my last 2 growth scans Baby was breech too, they have told me my next scan on the 16th is the decider re being breech but thats it. I have already had one natural birth with my DS1 but didnt have GD with him...i was hoping to go in, give birth and be out in 6hrs with this one and from snippets of what i have allowed myself to read on google (too many horror stories on there for me! lol) im thinking this may not happen..was your LO okay after the birth if you dont mind me asking? Also he is gorgeous!! x

 

[Tiff]

I don't think that GD will automatically cause you to not take to induction well. I had GD and was induced at 38+6, and the entire thing from start (putting the gel in) to finish (holding my little girl) took 8.5 hours. That's better that some ladies who go into labour naturally!

I definitely think you should talk to your doctor if you want to have some sort of birth plan. I didn't, as I didn't know what to expect and was open to whatever happened. All I knew is that I wanted the epidural. As with regular labour induced labour can go well, or not so well.

My friend was induced as her baby was large, although she didn't have GD. Her son was too big to fit through the birth canal so she had to have an emergency C Section. The more you know, the easier it is to take in!

 

[chocolate]

Hiya, I apparantly had gd in my pregnancy with ds - was just over the level from glucose test. But my daily tests were always fine and if anything my levels were low if i didnt eat a big enough meal. My son was 6.8oz's and I saw consultant near the end but dont think i even had a growth scan.

So this time im going to ask more questions as in the end I ate less than usual as was scared to eat some things!


I know it sounds so scarey, but gd is controllable, with monitoring, like me, you could have no problems at all

 

[lisaboo79]

im glad someone mentioned the birth and being induced, im very scared about it to be honest, if it took 4 days were you in hospital all that time? i hate the thought of just laying there, i dont even really know what it involves, ive googled it and stuff but i dont know if what i have read really gives a good idea, i have had alot of contradictions in this pregnancy, your baby may be big, your baby may be small, your baby may have downs, your baby doesnt have downs its all been quite hard mentally, but physically i really have not had many problems, i really am just dreading the birth

 

[Tiff]

Awww, its understandable to be scared. I was too, as I had heard that induced labour is more intense than regular labour. That was so scary until someone pointed out that I had never been in labour before, so I really didn't have anything to compare it to!

When I got in there, they did a Non-Stress Test to see how the baby was doing. After that they brought me to my room and we got ourselves comfortable. I was given gel in my cervix, and had to lay down for an hour so it didn't drip out. My O/B said that my cervix was "high and thick" and that they had their "work cut out for them". That was scary to me too!

After the hour I was allowed to walk around. Pretty much right on the hour it started cramping. It was pretty uncomfortable, as it was in my back. 3 hours later my doctor came to check on me and I was pretty uncomfortable at that point. He checked me and saw that I had progressed another 2cm (so was 3cm dialated) and decided to break my waters. That didn't hurt, or if it did it wasn't anything compared to the cramps from the gel.

It was a weird sensation to have my waters broken, I could feel the warm liquid gush around me. Once that happened, the actual contractions hit and I won't lie, they HURT. I had opted for the epidural, and the guy came to do that around 20mins later. The thing with the epi (that I didn't know) is that it takes a bit to "kick in". I was told that I would feel another 3 or 4 normal contractions... then after that they'd start to be shorter and lessen in intensity until I couldn't feel them anymore.

At one point they looked at the fetal monitor and told me that I was in the middle of a massive contraction, but I couldn't feel a thing!

After that it was pretty easy until the pushing came. I got feeling back for that, but not painful... just an urge to bear down. I hadn't been prepared for how physically exhausting it is to push! I pushed for an hour and she was out! I was terrified and the whole thing was so scary but your bodies are designed for childbirth! We've been doing it for centuries!

Also, remember if something were to go wrong you are in the best possible place to counteract it! I never had a nurse leave my side once the gel was put in. You guys are going to be great!!!!

 

[cindi]

i was diagnosed with it at 10 weeks. Well it's actually type 2 but because i'm pregnant they had to diagnose it as gd. I dealt with this during another pregnancy as well. it's not as bad as you all may think. Just watch your carbs and sugar. Proteins are good helps break down the carbs. I'm insulin dependant and yes i get tired of poking fingers 4 times a day and sticking my belly 3 times a day (yuck) but it's for you and the baby.

My daughter I had gd with was 5 lbs 13 oz and 18 inches long. very healthy and she's a happy healthy 2 year old. So things can go right. Just listen to the med professionals. They know what they are talking about! if you have questions or need a supportive ear that knows what you are going through with experience let me know.

 

[xerinx]

Hi i am 28 weeks pregnant with my third and have had gd in all pregnancies. I am also on insulin and have been since 7 weeks. My first they induced me at 38 weeks but after 21 hours and failure to progress they gave me and emergency section and he was a healthy lil boy of 9lb 1/2oz. When i had my daughter they thought she was going to be bigger so at 38 weeks they decided to take me down for a section the day before induction was planned! She ended up only being 8lb not the 10 they thought!! Due to the previous sections they have already said i will be having another section at 38 weeks with this one. Hopefully he wont be too big!!!

 

[Floralaura]

Can i ask if anyones babies had to go to special care/stay in hospital for treatment and what happned if yes..this is what scares me and no MW/DR etc has spoke to me about it all..thanks.

 

[Tiff]

TrinityDM had to hun, maybe give her a PM? She's busy with her LO but I'm pretty sure she had to stay in the NICU for a day or so. I think?

 

[xerinx]

My first was in scbu for 2 nights as his levels were too low but he was fine after. And my second was in over night to make sure she was ok. But as i breastfed my first they let me go down to see him as often as i needed with my OH pushing the wheelchair the first day.

 

[suzib76]

so is it normal practice to induce if you have GD?

i am off for a glucose test on tuesday, was scanned today and lots of fluid round baby

 

[Tiff]

I think it depends on your doctor, but most won't let you go over your Due Date. Good luck at your glucose test!

 

[xerinx]

my hospital wont let you go over 38 weeks so they induce you then but i beleive all hospitals are different. They prefer to induce so they can monitor you constantly during labour and make sure everyone is on hand that is needed.

 

[suzib76]

ooo bleeps lol, i have been looking it up on internet too and it looks like 38 weeks is the general thing across the board

i am so hoping this test comes back ok

 

[suzib76]

ooo bleeps lol, i have been looking it up on internet too and it looks like 38 weeks is the general thing across the board

i am so hoping this test comes back ok

 

[xerinx]

It shouldnt be too bad for you now if you are diagnosed anyway to be honest your nearly at a stage where lil one has done all the growing!! Ive been diagnosed since 7 weeks so this lil man is prob gonna end up big!! Growth scan tomorrow to find out ....... Im thinking hes big i seem huge!!