Support thread for those diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes

[HighFibreDiet]

Hi, it seems there are a few of us around and I wondered if you wanted to start a support thread? There seemed to be a good thread going through 2010 but I can't find one running at the moment.

My due date is 17 July. I took the OGTT at 30 weeks (not realising that the best time for diagnosis is supposed to be 24-28 weeks). I was only diagnosed last week, given my blood glucose monitor on Thursday and have been trying to tweak my diet to bring down the readings since then. Seeing my midwife today and have to phone in my readings next week to see what they make of them!

My main problem seems to be the fasting blood sugars and the endocrinologist I saw on Thursday said if I couldn't keep them consistently down, I would go on insulin, with 'no negotiation'.

Would love to hear from other pg women with GD, or those who have been through it before. I'd also like to compare how the antenatal 'care' varies with country, as I am in Australia and it seems extremely strict over here (e.g. my fasting blood sugar levels have to be under 5.0 mmol/l).

Looking forward to getting some responses

Thanks for more definitions MrsZB am learning lots. Hoping you are well on your way to a happy health baby or already have one in your arms possibly...
200 lancets, ridiculous! Glad my GP isn't the only one with the strange prescription behaviours.

Feeling utterly exhausted this morning after idiot neighbour decided to blast 'mood music' at 6 in the morning across the whole street. Then had
relatively safe breakfast and one hour later, sky high reading!

Trying not to feel too down about it but stupidly I started to feel really hopeful (and a bit smug?) after one week of good readings. Trying to remind myself that I can only do my best and it's trial and error.

Somewhat reassuring that at the bbq at the weekend I met several other recent mums, none of whom had their 'ideal' birth but it really didn't matter because they got a lovely baby at the end.

And dinners were better than I expected except for awkward ten minutes of sitting around a table with everyone else indulging in chocolate mousse and me trying to pretend it didn't matter and I didn't really want at least a spoonful!

quick post to say baby girl born at home 7.03 pm Friday evening (that's 10.03 am London time) 3.9 kg, covered in vernix, very healthy and my milk has come in already so no concerns about hypoglycaemia either.

Won't say what I am eating as that wouldn't be fair!! Won't test my blood sugar levels again for a few weeks then will probably do a few days of testing instead of doing the GTT.

Hooray! Well done HighFibre and welcome baby girl :)

Congratulations to highfibrediet! Fantastic news and so pleased for you. Was the home birth planned or a surprise? I'm sure you're busy at the moment but would love to hear more details. How long was the labour? Any names yet?
I always (half) joke that I will have a chocolate milkshake waiting for after the birth so certainly don't blame you for eating whatever you like. With champagne to wash it down! So good to hear a happy post-GD birth story.

Hi all, sorry not to have posted for ages... Baby Zach was born last Tues by ELCS at 39 weeks, despite the scan claiming he was 80th centile he was actually 6lb 13oz and too teeny even for newborn clothes! We're both fine with no health issues, and went home after 2 days.

Congrats to you too Highfibre so pleased the babies are starting to arrive safely!

How exciting - getting busy on the baby front! Congratulations Highfibre and hubster. I do wonder about these scans though - that is quite a difference in size!

sprite - I also keep joking to people and telling them I don't want any baby stuff as presents - just cake! At this rate I may have enough to start a cake shop, if they all take me seriously!

Many congratulations Highfibrediet and hubbahubster!! Lovely news to hear that all went well.

Congrats to hubbahubster!

Yes it was a planned home birth. I got fed up with the hospital treating me as if I was 'high risk' despite borderline levels, and luckily my midwife said she would support me. At 36 weeks I cancelled all further hospital appointments, wrote a very clear account (backed up by references) of what I was doing to manage the GD and why I believed a home birth would not be more risky for me and would possibly be less risky, and relaxed for the next five weeks!

baby crying now so will go

Thanks for sharing both of you. I am feeling particularly empowered by your experience highfibre and maybe I'll push for a birth centre birth now after all if I weigh all the risks and consider it to be in our best interest. My midwife did seem initially supportive of this and essentially said that it was ultimately up to me where I had the baby and if I insisted on the birth centre then they couldn't really refuse.

I am hoping the scan in two days time will shed some light on the situation although judging from hubster's experience it sounds like they aren't to be regarded with utter faith.

Late scans are notoriously imprecise! I think they quote a precision of 500g either way but I have certainly heard of babies coming out either under or over the predicted size by far more than that.

Sprite I can e-mail you my document if you are interested - although my internet presence is unpredictable depending on the connection and whether our little one is needing attention.

Hi, can I hop on? I had GD in my first pregnancy so they did the test earlier this time, at almost 22 weeks, and I got the positive diagnosis yesterday. I'm not at all surprised, and it's about a million times less emotionally fraught, but it's still frustrating.

One of the things that's frustrating me is, I got the diagnosis by phone and chatted to my GP (I'm under the care of an independent midwife, having a homebirth, but she can't write referrals for things so my GP provides shared care for various purposes), who said he wanted me to monitor it strictly for a week and then come in and we'll chat. Fine. He also said that they've tightened up the parameters in the past few months, it's stricter now because they're more concerned about the effects of GD on the baby than they were. It's not just about birth weight, but about various developmental problems.

Fine, again. But he didn't tell me what the parameters WERE, I guess because he wants me to just eat a sensible diet and see what my blood readings are, but argh how do I know if I need to be stricter or not? I rang my local Diabetes info line and spoke to their GD expert, recommended to me by the pharmacist who sold me Mr Stabby the glucose monitor, and she said the goals -

Sprite - I had a growth scan last time at 36 weeksish, it predicted 40th%ile for weight but with something ridiculous like a 25% + or - error rate. DD was 50%ile in the end. So yes, lots of room for error.

And I really feel for you, it's so frustrating feeling like your whole pregnancy and birth is being taken over by protocol and norms and whatnot. I had an actual raised voice argument with my GP (different GP) last time because she told me flat out that they would induce at 40 weeks for GD, refused to give me any background research, info, or references, just kept saying "it's protocol, you don't want a stillbirth do you", and it infuriated me. Informed fucking consent, my arse.

Sorry for sequential posts. MamalaMoo, the GD woman I spoke to told me that some hospitals in different parts of the country (I'm in Australia) are bringing in the 6.5 cut-off as well. I gather this is really recent, the last few months, based on research earlier this year that GD babies, even if full term and no issue with size, can sometimes suffer from similar developmental delays or complications as premature babies. So thus, the tighter controls, but it's such recent research that it's really hit and miss who's adopted what at this stage.

Ok I'll stop flooding the thread now!

Quick question: can having a cold cause low blood sugar levels? I've got a low-grade cold of the runny nose/mild sinus pain type atm and my post-breakfast reading was 3.8 just now, after eating cornflakes and toast with peanut butter for breakfast.

Have googled and most sources seem to say a cold will make your levels rise. Just a bit concerned in case there's something else going on.

(I know, I know, I should just ring the diabetes clinic!)

hello to tortoise and good to have your input particularly as people tend to leave post-baby. I've only just started posting myself and still have another 8 weeks or so to go as I'm at 32 tomorrow (hoping not to be induced early but we'll see).

Thanks for the advice regarding scans. I am anxiously awaiting mine tomorrow and hoped I would get more decisive information from it but maybe not. At least i also get to see the diabetes midwife and am going to request to see a dietician because I haven't had any advice about amounts of carbs to eat and have just been trying to stick to low-GI ones.
Yesterday a colleague who was trying to be helpful bought me a loaf of whole wheat bread from her local bakery and it sat there all day next to me smelling delicious and looking very tempting. Really not helpful! LOL.

I am starting to feel anxious with people talking about readings below 6.5 - is that after two hours? I was told to test after one hour and as long as it's below 7.8 I have been happy with it. I don't want to start getting compulsive about it as I struggled with food and eating in my 20s and really want to avoid obsessing about it that way. This does make it difficult though.

My new favourite dessert is mascarpone cheese with frozen berries and sweetener. Doesn't seem to affect my readings and mulitple variations are recommended as recipes on diabetes websites so must be okay?!
starinstrangeways I've been reading earlier posts on this thread and several people have mentioned colds or illness affecting bs levels although it wasn't clear whether it went up or down (maybe either?).

Oh, and highfibre yes please send me the link to the document.

Yep, 6.5 is after two hours. With my first pregnancy it was 7 after two hours and fasting has to be under 5.5 (which is what I always failed at in first pregnancy and am failing at again).

I'm surprised you haven't been told how many carbs to eat, I'd have thought that was key! The general advice seems to be 6-10 carb exchanges per day - I was told 2 per meal and 1 per snack, just to spread it evenly. A carb exchange in Australia is 15gm. In the US it appears to be 10gm. That's not very helpful, is it? Anyway, a slice of bread, or half a large corn cob, or 1/2 cup cooked pasta/rice = one carb.

astarinstrangeways How are you feeling now? Did you contact the clinic about your low readings? Hope you are feeling better.

tortoiseonthehalfshelf Hi and welcome! Sorry you have to join this thread but it's nice to have more people! Did yours completely go away last time afterwards? I am curious as to what will happen when the baby is here and scared it isn't going to go away!

Sprite21 Good luck for the scan!

I had an appt on Tuesday and they were pleased with my readings, even though my fasting level still isn't below 6 despite the now massive amounts of insulin I am having! It is honestly like it isn't having any effect! I am determined to get it lower than 6 but they were quite relaxed at the clinic and seemed to think it was ok. I am a bit of a perfectionist though and if they have given me a target I am damn well going to meet it!!!

I had a growth scan last week at 32 weeks and apparently I don't have anymore now which I was surprised by.

But, the latest fun is that from now on I have to go for twice weekly monitoring at the assessment unit!? I asked at the MAU whether this was usual and they slightly rolled their eyes and said it was the consultants latest thing and said he was being cautious and keeping a close eye on the GDs. I don't mind on the one hand but it's just a bit of a pain having to go twice a week!

Anyway, hope everyone else is doing well and feeling ok?

Just to let you know that Iris Mary was born on Sunday, the day of my induction. Only had one pessary, then they broke my waters which started me off.

I was impressed that throughout the midwives were great and pretty much ignored the whole diabetes thing. I had intermittent monitoring as per a normal delivery, didn't check blood sugars, no drip etc. Was fantastic! All in all I had a great labour, it was only as medicalised as needed to be and they just let me get on with it all myself. I used my birthing ball, yoga mat, used cat positions and kneeling positions and was a really amazing experience. Particularly given what I was expecting after missing out on the HB. They did no coached pushing, was all up to me and my instincts. Iris's blood sugars have been perfect too.

Wanted to let you know that induction doesn't have to be scary - labour recorded as lasting 3h45m with 20 min second stage.

However, she IS a big girl. 9lb8oz on her due date! But gorgeous, and a much easier labour than with my DS who was 8lb2oz.

Wonderful news Ladygonegaga!!! I am so pleased that you had such a positive birth experience and many congratulations on the birth of Iris Mary :) :)

Congratulations ladygonegaga with the addition of little Iris (love the name). So heartwarming to hear of all these good birth outcomes. 3hrs45, amazing! I won't be so scared of induction now.

Sounds like other clinics/doctors are a lot stricter than mine. Twice weekly monitoring MrsZB ! and on top of all the testing that is a big commitment.

I had my scan yesterday and am much relieved that all seems to be well.
Baby is measuring in the 50th percentile for growth. Her tummy is a little bigger in proportion to the rest of her body but both the clinician and the midwife said the ratios were well within range and nothing to worry about.
Also, my placenta has moved up so that rules out automatic c-section. I'd forgotten about that risk after my last scan but now one less thing to worry about!
The midwife was happy with my numbers and even suggested only monitoring every second day but I feel more reassured doing it every day.
I had a slightly high reading this morning but I think it was because I forgot to have protein with my carbs. You do have to be vigilant!
I know I have another 8 weeks to go and more lows are sure to come but I'm feeling really positive at the moment. Lovely to see the baby again on the scan as well - nice reminder of why all this hassle is necessary.
I'm also surprised you don't have another scan MrsZB especially with what sounds like a very cautious consultant.

I think I just have the one more booked for week 35. Really interesting the differences in treatment. I asked again about the carb weighing but she said that whatever my portion sizes were they seemed to be working. I might measure them myself just to see...

Oh, and thanks for the advice on carbs tortoise I want to make sure I am getting enough but not too much.

Brilliant news Ladygonegaga, lovely to hear such a positive story, well done to you. And she was an impressive size :)

Congratulations Ladygonegaga. Glad you ended up with a good birth, despite it being an induction. And yes - impressive weight!

Well had another midwife appointment this week, attempted to do a birth plan which mainly consisted of them saying, well we don't know what is going to go on, depends on what the consultant says....so pretty much a waste of time! On a more positive note the midwife said she didn't think the baby was that huge, so fingers crossed it won't be...!

Welcome tortoise - sounds like you will be an expert, having already gone through pregnancy with GD once!

Well have consultant and scan on Tues, when I will be 37 weeks, so hoping we may find out what is the plan with things then...

Congratulations again LGG :) Just to add to the positive induction stories, I had my little girl on Friday afternoon after being induced at 39 weeks. Two lots of Prostin and having my waters broken only got me to 5cm, but 55 minutes on the drip and out she popped at 7lb 14oz. My second stage is recorded as 5 minutes

It was really intense but such a positive experience - the hospital staff were all wonderful, especially my fab midwife who dealt with the unexpected speed-up really well. Despite ending up with a scalp clip on the baby and being stuck on the bed as a result, I felt there was not a sniff of over-medicalisation about the experience: I didn't see a consultant anywhere near the delivery room, I had no intrusive interventions, didn't need any stitches, didn't even need any pain relief afterwards. And Claudia is fine, no blood sugar issues, feeding like a champ and generally gorgeous :)

Wow - these babies are popping thick and fast! Congratulations Star. Good to hear your induction also went well? Did you know that you would be induced at 39 weeks? Did you manage without pain relief when hooked up to the drip? THat is my worst fear - as I had a very very long induction with DC1, which turned into a nightmare once I was on the drip - extremely painful, and just no way I could cope with it. Just keep hoping it won't be so bad this time, being that is DC4!

I was also wondering how much the consultant would be involved in the actual birth. The midwife I saw this week said, although not 100% certain, but they may want to hook up to insulin/ glucose drips throughout labour, which I found a bit worrying!