Can I say No?

[SarahWJ]

Hi all completely new to all this and it’s my first baby too, so I am 34 weeks today and I at about 30 ish weeks I had a Glucose test for diabetes as my BMI was slightly over. Told today that my levels are well within normal range. However as baby has grown a bit the consultant has ordered another glucose test, I feel it’s totally unnecessary so my question is can I say no?

Please be nice to me I’m feeling fragile today

One of the shocking facts I learnt when I was diagnosed is that the body needs something like 4x the normal insulin and the pregnancy causes a hormone release that acts as a resistant factor to insulin you produce.

When you are pregnant thre all sorts of things you have to do that are uncomfortable, embarrassing and just plain outside your comfort zone but you do it for th health of your baby and yourself

When I was sent for a glucose test at 32 weeks I was told it was too late for them to help even if I did have gestational diabetes, was a completely pointless waste of everyone’s tome

Please have it done, I know you are anxious about it but you need to be sure everything is alright. My dd is about the same weeks along and had the test, and needed to have it done again, and it's a flippin good job she did. Just try and take a deep breath.

At the end of the day I'm entitled to give op the answer to her question which is yes she can say no,obviously with my comment "nobody knows your body better than you" that isn't to say she's meant to know weather she's got diabetes or any other internal illness but just as advice from 1 mum to another that during pregnancy,labour and motherhood you will be given advice by lots of people (some by professionals) that isn't necessarily correct and you don't have to go along with it if it's not what you want or feel is right.

Whilst in normal life, 4 weeks seems nothing - in pregnancy it's 10% of the total time it takes to grow a human - so much can happen and change in 4 weeks. You have every right to say no, but please please think about it. They are wanting to retest to ensure you are both safe.

Yes of course it can just happen, it can develop at any stage, there isn’t a time frame for it

Just do the test. It’s not painful or intrusive for goodness sake.

I had three GTT with my youngest because he was a large baby, I was measuring big and I had glucose in my urine. My last one was only a couple of weeks before I was due to have him and I did question how much use it would be but those weeks can make a difference. My results were always the higher end of normal so could have easily tipped into the high range.

It wasn't because of GTT but I did end up in the hospital with him with pre-eclampsia and bells palsy. That escalated very quickly in the space of 24 hours. Things can change very, very quickly in pregnancy and it is best to listen to the suggestions of a medical professional rather than some random on the internet.

@lovebeingmum9 such dangerous advice. OP the consultant wants to do the test for a reason. Please do the test, it's in the interest of your babies health and your own.

you will be given advice by lots of people (some by professionals) that isn't necessarily correct
You might have geststional diabetes which would be harmful to the baby/ you isn't incorrect though is it? So yes she can say no - to tests for gtt, or a C section of a breach baby, of any bloods or monitoring during pregnancy etc, none of thst means that saying is the best thing for her and the baby

In the UK, unless you have fertility or other medical problems, you aren’t often tested as routine for the factors that make certain diseases more prevalent. There is also misleading advice provided from the mw regarding a range of conditions because the knowledge is only confined to consultants.

For example PCOS, regardless of whether you are overweight or not, makes you high risk for preclampsia and GDD. If you use private maternity services in the UK or go to other countries, pregnant women with PCOS are often proactively treated with Metformin and aspirin (as it can cause blood clots too). But the NHS doesn’t even test for this condition unless you develop a fertility problem and many women find out they may have this after a pregnancy goes wrong.

Same with a clotting disorder - you have to have 3 miscarriages (early or late) to be offered the NHS test for this. But to get consistant treatment during pregnancy and extra scans you need to have a stillbirth or late miscarriages. Women with clotting disorders are far more likely to have preclampsia and many women who haven’t fit the criteria above don’t even realise until after a horrific pregnancy forces the NHS to test.

Thyroid problems (not often taken seriously so it’s a miracle if you are diagnosed at all unless it specifically impacts fertility or is really bad) make you higher risk for normal diabetes and GDD and other autoimmune conditions (including preclampsia) but again the NHS guidelines doesn’t test you routinely for this unless you are overweight or have known pcos (irony!). So many women with thyroid issues end up getting these conditions.

So @lovebeingmum9 - a woman doesn’t really know her body at all. unless of course she is rich and has used private healthcare!

I've had the glucose test and I know it's time consuming but I'd go again, better to be safe than sorry.

That said, you can completely say no. It's your body and your baby