Gestational diabetes baby

[nopun]

I would really love to hear from people who have had GD. How were your babies after birth? For how long did they struggle to adjust their own sugar levels? Did they have any other issues?

I've been recently diagnosed (26 weeks) but think I've had it for weeks, and am freaking out...

My baby was fine after the birth. They monitored him, but he was fine.

Mine was fine after she was born. Induced at 38+4 but no complications of GD for baby.

My baby was fine no issues. I was induced at 39 weeks

I had GD with both my sons. At birth they both had low blood sugar for the first day but recovered quickly and were fine (took a while to establish feeding and for them to regain their birth weight but that’s not specifically a GD thing). The thing I found hardest (apart from their heel-pricking) was that I had had it drummed into me about breastfeeding and how colostrum was liquid gold and the best thing for them, but what they really needed to get their blood sugar up was a little bit of formula and I wish I’d been able to relax about that. So I would suggest readying yourself to be ok with that if it’s needed. But all in all after the first day of making sure their blood sugar was high enough, they were just like any other babies. So try not to worry. GD is a nuisance but you’ll get through it.

Thank you everyone! I'm trying not to imagine the worst case scenarios... The fact that your babies didn't have problems is lovely to hear.

Thank you Secondsop that's really useful advice. I'd love for mine not to need any formula but it sounds as though that might be unrealistic. Did you manage to breastfeed them afterwards?

No problems at all for mine either, passed all the blood tests after birth and everything else fine too.

My daughter was fine. She had to have formula top ups for 24 hours until her blood glucose results stabilised but that didn’t affect me establishing breast feeding

I had GD and was offered an ELCS owing to DS measuring big. I was grateful - he came out at 10 lbs 3 with a big head!

He struggled a bit with his temperature and blood sugars so went to NICU for about 5 hours but came back to us as we were moving off recovery ward. I was a bit spaced out so wasn't really the wiser (bad reaction to anti nausea during op and blood loss) but DP found it a bit difficult.

We also had problems feeding - mainly latch but also positioning. We kept trying but eventually had to move to exclusive ff a few days/week later. This obviously made me feel terrible but he is no worse for it and it was the best decision for us.

I hope the rest of your pregnancy carries on as smoothly as possible and your baby is healthy and perfect--I'm sure that they will be. All I have extra to offer nopun is to take care of yourself in the years to come too.

My doctor told me that the state of pregnancy on the body can be a little window into the future. Our bodies work harder and undergo a lot of physiological stress during pregnancy. So if we develop a pregnancy related condition then we may have a predisposition to this condition which means that later in life when our body is aging we may develop that condition. For those who develop GD this means that you might be more likely to develop type 2 diabetes. For those who develop gestational hypertension or pre-eclampsia they may be more likely to develop high blood pressure in later life.

I mean this all from a completely non-judgemental medical view point, just wanted to share what my doctor shared with me as I hadn't thought about it this way before. I just thought it was almost a bit of a privilege to know about something you have a predisposition to, so that you can look after yourself and possibly avoid it in the future.

I had GD with DS2 - I ended up on insulin as couldn't control it any other way and also had polyhydramnios which meant they brought my c-section forward to 37wks as I literally looked like I was going to pop and my waters did on the way to theatre.
With hindsight we think I probably had it with DS1 it was just not picked up.
Both boys came early at 36.5 and 37wks and a decent but not enormous scale of around 7lb despite scan predictions of them both being huge.
Neither had any problems at all with sugars. DS1 took a while to pick up on feeding but that may have partly been because he was my first, DS2 took to it straight away.
My sugars went back to normal within a few hours of giving birth and I had no complications from the GD.
When I was first diagnosed they tried to control with diet, then diet and metformin but it was all complicated because I have another medical condition and the drugs for that didn't help my levels so I went onto insulin. Luckily I'm used to injecting for my other condition but the insulin needles and test finger pricks are tiny and although annoying don't really hurt, they just take some getting used to.
They were great at monitoring me and the GD nurse was lovely at walking me through everything. I was already getting extra scans but would have got them for the GD so they kept an eye and knew when to intervene so both me and baby were absolutely fine.

Thank you tortoise, that sounds like very sound advice.

Thank you wonkylegs - sounds like you had a tough pregnancy, but glad to hear your babies were fine, and you were afterwards too. I also have some other medical complications which affect this pregnancy, but this diagnosis of GD really scared me.

I had GD, I was on metformin but managed to stay off insulin (just!).
I was induced at 39 weeks, also IVF so an earlier delivery was always on the cards.
Baby is on 25th percentile, 6lb 4oz, so not a big baby.
They kept us in for 24 hours to check all was OK. Both our bloods went back to normal within that time and we were discharged. No follow up for baby but I've got to have a test at 3 months to make sure mine has gone and then yearly after that. Baby is 7 weeks now and all seems to be fine.
Try not to worry too much, all the people who looked after us seemed to be really clued up on GD and took really good care of us. I hope you can enjoy the rest of your pregnancy without worrying too much about it.

Heavy was perfect, and my bloody were a bit rubbish all the way though, couldn't manage with diet or tablets was still pants because of hormones! BUT the had no problems and is still perfect :-)

@nopun I did breastfeed both, mix-feeding with formula too (nobody tells you that this is possible but it really is) so the breastfeeding was sort of extra / a small part of their milk. Child 1, he did not like the breast so we didn’t go for more than a few weeks. Child 2 LOVED it and I breastfed him for 2.5 years, only stopping cos we were physically separated when he went abroad with my husband and I joined them a couple of weeks later. The issue with Child 2 was that I couldn’t make it work for him on breast alone, but introduction of bottles in no way stopped his desire for breastfeeding. You will be told that once you give a child a bottle, that’s it for the breast, but there are 2 people involved in breastfeeding and the other one (the child) may have their own strong views on the matter.
So, of course it is perfectly valid to want to breastfeed and to want to try your best to make it work. All things being equal, breastfeeding is marvellous. But all things are so often NOT equal, so my advice would be not to let that be at the cost of other important things.

Ask your midwife for some small syringes to express some colostrum into before birth. Then freeze it and take it to the hospital with you.

I had GD in two pregnancies. DD had very low blood sugar at birth, which led to 4 nights in hospital, her being fed formula against my wishes and a whole lot of upset and stress.

DS had slightly low blood sugar at birth, but if brought along some frozen colostrum and his blood sugars improved really quickly once I’d fed him some.

Thank you Cletter - that sounds a scary prospect but excellent advice. How early did you manage to get the colostrum? My last baby was very premature and I had to work really hard to get my milk established, but did manage after a few days of trying and loads of pumping.

I had GD with my second. I was on metformin and insulin toward the end of pregnancy. Induced at 38+5. He was 8lb1oz and bloods were perfect. We were out within 12 hours of him being born.

Oh and I breastfed. I had tried to harvest colostrum but failed but he took to feeding like a champ (despite a tongue tie). Helped that I had loads of milk - much more so than with my first.

Mine was absolutely fine and a completely normal weight (7.5 pounds). If you can control it through diet there is no reason why your baby would struggle to regulate their sugar when born.

Sorry should have said also control through medication not just diet. I was induced at at almost 39 weeks because that was my hospital's policy rather than there being an obvious need to do so. Good luck with everything :)

Thanks everyone, really love reading these positive stories.

I had a suspicion about GD ages ago (always felt awful after meals), and then the 20 week scan showed baby on 95th percentile. I'm really not big so this sounded weird to me, but no one at the hospital seemed very interested. In the end I only managed to get the glucose tests booked for this week (26/27 weeks) after insisting that I needed them - and they showed my glucose levels sky high. So I am worried about the effects this might have already had on the baby. Since finding out I've managed to control levels with diet and feel so much better, just hope the little one won't be harmed by the earlier sugary weeks.

Both of my DC's were absolutely fine. Second DC was slightly big, 9lb 4oz but aside from that both were A ok.

Try not to worry. You will be monitored closely.

I had three babies with GD. The first and third were totally fine. The second took a bit longer to reach the right levels, and she ended up having small formula top ups after breast feeding for the first 24hrs.
They were all small babies, and I'm small too, so not a typical GD scenario.
I managed to control the first pregnancy with diet alone, but needed metformin for the second and third (which, by the way is one of the most awful drugs when you start with it, so if you can manage to control things with your diet, then definitely do so!).