Snacks for labour with GD?

[NoisyBrain]

I have GD and I'm due to go in to be induced next week. I've been wondering what other ladies in my position have taken to snack on in early labour. Thanks to baby brain I totally forgot to ask the diabetes midwife at my appointment yesterday.

I'm assuming the popular options of sweets & chocolate are a total no-no so I have a couple of packs of oatcakes on standby and I'll also take a couple of bananas. Any other suggestions?

I wasn't allowed to eat in labour when being induced with gd. I had a glucose drip and insulin drip instead (despite not needing insulin during pregnancy). I was on metformin though so maybe if you are just diet controlled it will be ok.

Cheese strings/babybels are a good snack carbwise.

Thanks Tarka
Oh bum, I'm on Metformin. So I'm likely to be hooked up to two drips as well as all the monitoring equipment? Where the hell do they put the line in for the Sintocinon?! As if I wasn't dreading induction enough...

I'm getting really fed up at the lack of helpful info I've been given by my HCPs lately tbh. It's my first baby so I don't always know the 'right' questions to ask IYSWIM. It's all very well giving me a leaflet about the induction process, but practical info such as what/when I can/can't eat is also quite important I think! Thank heavens for places like MN.

Can I also ask a possibly daft question - as I could be on the ward for days til anything happens, when they give you hospital meals do they allow for GD? As in, I'd like to think they wouldn't try and give me things like mashed potato or jelly would they?

Funny you should ask that! I had a long delay between going into hospital and the labour being properly started (I was ready after one pessary but they were too busy). The food selection was awful, I couldn't believe I couldn't get an appropriate diabetic meal in a hospital! Although, slightly in their defence I am also vegetarian.

I had dh bring salads up from the canteen as well as thing like peanut butter sandwiches that would keep ok to supplement what they could offer. I don't think I was missing much though as the food looked grim.
This time I'll pre-prepare some packed lunches in advance.

A lot varies between hospitals though so you might have a very different experience. I recently stayed overnight in a hospital near my mum's and they had a two page menu!

Interesting thread. I have GD (controlled with metformin) and had it last time. I think I pretty much ignored the GD while in labour and ate toast with marmalade - however the G&A made me puke so perhaps I didn't absorb much sugar.

One thing I did find helpful last time were those chocolate flavoured protein bars you get in Holland & Barrett. However, it's much harder to control this time so perhaps it wouldn't be so good this time.

Ps just to say aside from the shit food and delays the actual birth was a really positive experience. I had two midwives (one was a student) in the room at all times. I did have drips in both hands as well as continuous monitoring so couldn't really move off the bed but coped well for the first 4 hrs of the drip, then when it got too painful was immediately given an epidural. DD was born easily after only 8hrs after they started the labour.
Sorry, tried to give lots of detail but happy to answer any questions too - dd was my first and the gd was a bit of a surprise so it was all quite overwhelming. It's so much easier this time round knowing what to expect.

It's crazy how much it varies across areas, cru. I had white toast just after the birth and it was AMAZING. Would have definitely cheered me up during labour!

Well, it's all I wanted when I was in labour. But I probably puked most of it back up.

I forgot to take any snacks for labour last time (had insulin controlled GD) and they have me some white toast. I are it because tbh, by then I didn't care less and my readings were fine. I was supposed to be on a drip, (insulin/glucose sliding scale) but they never got round to it and I just checked my sugars regularly and they remained fine.

As for staying in hospital... I've been an inpatient during this pregnancy and the meals they say are suitable for diabetics aren't really what they suggest gestational diabetics eat. Having a few friends who are type 1, I suspect this is because what type 1/2 diabetics are told to eat these days varies hugely from a GD diet. That said, I found hospital portions so small that it didn't really make much difference what I ate tbh, it didn't affect my readings negatively. The only thing I avoided was sponge and custard etc for pudding and stuck to fruit or ice cream instead.

no GD but the best snacks I had were little packs of roasted salted almonds from Asda. They were great!