BF and Gestational Diabetes

[TryingToHelpAFriend]

Does anyone have any resources on bf and gestational diabetes? I am trying to advise a friend who is pregnant with GD and hopes to bf but her mw doesnt seem to think there are any issues and has advised taking in cartons of formula 'just in case'

I know some people express colostrum during pregnancy but is there any good info out there on why/when/how etc I can pass on to her? Or just some other peoples experiences of how GD can effect bf? I can then link her to this thread.

The only effect it had on me was that I was told to feed DD2 ASAP after birth. she was latched on straight away and kept on as long as possible to keep her blood sugar up. I guess if you can't get them to latch on or establish BF they would need formula quicker than another baby but I think that's fairly unlikely in reality.

One effect was that she got very cold. It didn't affect BFing but she couldn't be put down for the first four weeks because she would turn blue (it was March).

Breastfeeding & Maternal Diabetes on Kellymom.com

She can express colostrum from 36 weeks whenever she feels comfortable doing so. Her hospital should be able to supply 1ml or 2ml pre-sterilised syringes with caps to collect the colostrum in. She might need some advice/demos on hand-expressing - I really struggled at first when DD was in SCBU.

I had gestational diabetes, diagnosed with my second child (DD) but hindsight suggests I had it with my first (DS). I failed to breastfeed with my first child - he was sleepy and didn't open his mouth to latch, and we had no skin to skin, the antibiotics because they found GBS might have contributed, but he had a major sugar crash. That's the usual risk - sugar crash means tired baby who can't feed and restore the balance, so the professionals then start talking formula etc and bottles and it's much harder to get feeding established.

With my second, I expressed colostrum ahead of time, so that we could spoon/cup/syringe feed her in case she needed it. I kept my blood sugars even - it was very hard work, but it is so important to avoid the sugar crash. I did so on the advice of a breastfeeding counsellor, with the permission and support of my consultant. My hospital was not very prepared for it, I had to know what I was doing, get hold of syringes to express and store and freeze and organise what to do with the colostrum when I went in for induction. They're now (with my feedback) getting organised to support women expressing antenatally.

I found www.nhsayrshireandarran.com/view_item.aspx?item_id=4412 useful, and LLL do a sheet on it too.

We had skin to skin as soon as possible, as long as possible, I was very determined for that. She latched on fine, and had no problems and at nearly 10 months is still breastfeeding. I have no advice for if there are problems except that it's better that they get fed something than not.