Diabetes and induction

[BodBax]

Hi all,
13 weeks pregnant and T2 diabetic. Have been told I’ll need to be induced around 38 weeks but can I refuse this? Can anyone point me in the direction of positives/negatives about being induced/waiting for baby to appear when he’s ready whilst T2 diabetic?

Any personal experiences are welcome please!

Thank you x

It’s because as you are diabetic there are increased risks for baby. It can lead to baby being too big, higher risk of shoulder dystocia, and stillbirth. Induction at 38 weeks is to reduce the risk of stillbirth, and of those complications, so is recommended. Honestly in your shoes I wouldn’t think twice about it and would do it.

I had Gestational Diabetes and was induced at 37 w 5 days.
DD was measuring big and they advise against going past term because the placenta is more likely to fail with diabetes which can be very serious.

my induction was great and DD was big, born at 8lb 11 so likely would have been around 10lb at 40 weeks.

i went in and had a pessary inserted then just waited around and had periods where they took obs and did monitoring, lots of wandering about, reading, watching telly, then I got some sleep overnight.

Next day they checked me and decided they’d be able to break my waters. Everything takes a while so there was a fair amount of waiting around and more wandering before that actually happened. Once they broke my waters contractions kicked in within 30 minutes and pretty much straight into established labour. DD was born 4 and a half hours later with the help of some Gas n Air. By then it was early evening and they wanted 3 sugar checks for DD so we stayed overnight and were discharged by 9am the next day.

its hospital so food was rubbish, care was rushed and spotty, heat was set to inferno and everything was a bit boring and tedious, but it was generally all fine.

It might be influenced by whether you are diet controlled or on insulin. I ended up on insulin towards the end so had to be induced at 38 weeks. It was better, tbh, we could plan for the specific date, the birth was fine, DD was fine (and already over 8lb) and I didn’t have to spend the last 2 weeks worrying about a failing placenta which I absolutely would have been.

Same fir me. I had section at 37 weeks due to size of baby and risk of shoulder dystocia . He was 8 pounds 10.

Dont risk your or your baby's life.they know what they are doing.

I had gestational diabetes and requested a C-section in this situation rather than the induction. Between the diabetes and my age I wouldn’t have wanted to risk going to late. It was scheduled for 38w2d but DD came 2 days early and still by C-section as she was still breach at this point.

Dont risk your babies life. Diabetes & pregancy can be life threatening. Please make sure your blood sugars are kept very tightly in range.

Thank you so much everyone. Obviously I want to do what is best for baby and I but I was just told it would have to be induction and no other information so I wasn’t fully aware of the risks. My diabetes is well controlled by diet and Metformin only at the moment.
Thank you again!

Yeah sometimes they can be a little limited on the detail and just issue orders, it’s worth having a bit of a read about risks of diabetes and going armed with a set of questions.

one thing to be aware of is that you may find your diabetes worsens over the course of the pregnancy. So they should be booking you for a GTT or advising you to check your levels very regularly if they haven’t already.

With anything in pregnancy use the BRAIN acronym so anytime they present you with what they want you to do ask them to give you
Benefits of their suggestion
Risks of not following their guidance
Alternatives - is there an alternative?
Instinct - what does your gut tell you to do
Nothing - what happens if you do nothing?