Gestational diabetes

[Blak]

Hi guys, sorry that this is a bit of a long one but just want to know if anyone has had a similar experience to me. I had my 31 week appointment today and the midwife said baby is measuring big on the chart and she was unable to feel the position of her, she said this could be down to extra fluid around my baby. Baby’s heartbeat and movements are fine. Then on checking my urine there was glucose in it, she said this could be down to having apple juice for breakfast or the fact that I could have gestational diabetes. I have been sent for a scan and a glucose test on Thursday, So just trying not to worry in the mean time as everything has been perfect at every appointment up to now

[Catlover10]

Hello I was diagnosed at 29/30 weeks with this- I may have had it longer though although my GTT at 26 weeks was clear. They found glucose in my urine on a couple of occasions, and belly was measuring 2.5 weeks ahead. My growth scan this week at 32 weeks shows that baby’s stomach is on 95th percentile and he’s weighing nearly 5 pounds already... I’m trying to control my blood sugars with diet (they gave me a monitor to prick my finger) although some are still a bit high so I’m probably going to have to go on some medication or insulin injections soon. Don’t panic if you do have it, it just means they will get baby out slightly earlier and you’ll have extra scans to monitor the growth and will have to change your diet temporarily.

[mouse1234567]

Hi, I had a growth scan at 28 weeks and baby’s abdomen was measuring above the 95th percentile. They then sent me for a GTT because of this at about 29/30 weeks which came back saying I don’t have diabetes. I had my 32 week scan last week and baby’s belly is on the 97th percentile. They say I do not need to repeat the glucose test and am just having a big baby. It’s got me quite stressed and I am, within reason, trying to eat a low sugar diet -I’m finding it hard tho and still give myself the odd treat. The doctors will keep a good eye on you and soon enough you will have the results of your GTT. You may or may not have it -but don’t worry if you do you will be guided how to manage it.

I know how you feel -I do wish my baby was smaller! The doctors told me that I wouldn’t be induced before 40 weeks if I just have a big baby but no diabetes. But they may want to induce me at 40 weeks.

[pinknsparkly]

Gestational diabetes (GD) is surprisingly common - I think something like 1 in 10 women have it during pregnancy. It's not a reason to panic, and it's not harmful to your baby. However, it can make baby grow larger than it would do otherwise, which can cause issues with giving birth, and also cause the placenta to disintegrate towards the end of pregnancy. Therefore, if you do have GD, you will have additional growth scans to keep an eye on baby, and will be asked to monitor your blood sugars multiple times a day and report the readings to your midwife or a diabetes nurse. Typically they will start off by trying to control your blood sugar level by diet control and exercise alone, and may need to add in medication if diet alone isn't enough.

I'm not going to lie, the gestational diabetes diet and at home blood monitoring sucks (I'm 29 weeks and was diagnosed at 16 weeks so have been doing it for a while now!) but you do get used it with time. If you do get diagnosed, then join this Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/GestationalDiabetesUKMums
They also have a website that you can have a read through in the meantime: www.gestationaldiabetes.co.uk/

The information and recipes on the website and the support on the facebook group have both been invaluable for me!

But most of all - DO NOT FEEL GUILTY ABOUT THIS. Gestational diabetes is insulin resistance caused by the placenta - it isn't caused by you doing anything wrong! If you had an underactive thyroid then you would take medication for it and not feel guilty about having "done something wrong to cause it". This is exactly the same thing....

[Blak]

@Catlover10 @mouse1234567 thankyou so much for the info makes me feel a lot better that there is people in the same situation as me. What did they tell you at your midwife appointment prior to your scan? I had an apple juice an hour before my appointment so the midwife said that could potentially be why there was glucose in my urine but still doesn’t make sense as to why she’s measuring bigger and that they couldn’t fee the position of her which is why she thinks there’s more fluid around her.

[Catlover10]

They just said they would refer me for a growth scan due to measuring bigger where they worked out the stomach was 95 percentile and everything else was more like average and this happens commonly with diabetes. They did say that in general glucose shouldn’t be present in urine, because normally it should be able to be filtered out even if you had a whole bag of sweets and a tub of ice cream in one go- most people wouldn’t have any sugar in their wee but I think it is still possible. It wasn’t in my case though. You’ll find out a lot more once you’ve had your scan!

[Rubyroost]

I would wait for the resukts of your test before you get too ahead of yourself. Gkuolcose in urine is common I pregnancy and really is a crap indicator of gest diabetes. I had glucose on urine last time but no gest diabetes first pregnancy and absolutely no glucise in urine and gest diabetes this time. Its not something to be hugely worried about. Mine was easy to control, but I missed my carbs a lot. I only had to do the diet for 4 weeks tho as I was diagnosed late a 33 weeks and had early section at 37

[Blak]

Thanks for the reply, I think the midwife was pretty concerned about how big she was measuring at this moment in time too and the fact that she couldn’t feel her position which is why she says there could be too much fluid there. Will find out a lot more on Thursday, thankyou

[NicNac100]

What pinknsparkly said....
//www.facebook.com/groups/GestationalDiabetesUKMums
They also have a website that you can have a read through in the meantime: //www.gestationaldiabetes.co.uk/

The above have been invaluable to me too- have a little read through so if you are diagnosed you will know what to do straight away and it will never be too late to start making changes diet wise

I was diagnosed around 24 weeks after high result on my GTT - I was diet controlled for a few weeks then had to go on metformin but my pesky fasting levels are still too high, so I'm now on insulin - I still have to finger prick test every day, but that's easy enough you get used to it. Because of this I have been told I will have to be induced (they worry the placenta could start to fail with GD or the baby could get too big and their shoulders get stuck in birth canal etc.) - however last growth scan was 32+5 and baby measuring 4lb 12 oz so on the 50th percentile, so average, midwife said I'll probably not have to be induced until 39 weeks - got another growth scan on Monday where I'll be 36+5 and will know more then if baby has had a massive growth spurt I'll be induced before 39 weeks.

But please if you are diagnosed, don't think it is anything you have done wrong, it's completely hormonal/placenta related and there's nothing you could have done to stop it - the diet is boring (no sugar, limited carbs and no refined carbs, so switch to wholewheat everything and much small carb portions, more proteins, more fat, lots of water!) but you'll only have to do it for a few weeks (if you do have it) - I've manged it for 12 weeks now - and as hard as it is the only saving grace is I've not actually put on much weight because of it :)

Also if you do have it, it should go as soon as you have delivered baby and placenta (and had your sugar levels tested) - then you can have ALL the cake again :) good luck

[Rubyroost]

@Blak my baby was apparently measuring 5 weeks ahead according to scans. He was born at 47 weeks 6lb15 57th percentile. I also had extra fluid this time around and was diagnosed with polyhydramnios. For the gt test my fasting was fine but I failed the glucose tolerance test. Both the consultant and diabetes Dr said that the fluid and size of baby (est fetal Wight by 32 week scan-6lb 5) was not due to diabetes as my blood sugar levels were very good when I controlled my diabetes through diet.

[Rubyroost]

I'm just saying you might not have it and even if you do the size of the baby and extra fluid may not be related anyhow. Size of my baby was big according to scans throughout.. 20, 28, 32 34 and 36 weeks but he was very average once out. I also had polyhydramnios and they don't know what caused that either. I just wouldn't jump to any conclusions yet. Of course theres nothing to stop you being careful with your diet whilst you wait for your test just in case. Goof luck

[tannyb]

I was diagnosed with GD at 28 weeks, I'm now 35 weeks. It has been hard work, I had to change my diet almost completely due to having such a sweet tooth 🙈 but it is manageable to do it by diet. But of course mediation is available they won't put you on it without good reason.
I'm too a bit worried about the next stages, firstly I was told I'd have to give birth 2 weeks earlier than due date, now I get told due to controlling my sugars they may let me carry full term.
Silverlining to it all of you get extra scans and are able to see baby more often.
My boy is already measuring 2 weeks ahead of 'normal' but midwifes done seem concerned yet so I'm not. Your hospital and midwife ect will take all the care and notice of your baby due to the diabetes so don't fear to much. It's just a bit of a hindrance.
Good luck with it all though! 👍🏻

[Xiaohei]

I’ve had it in all three pregnancies- first at 28 weeks and did diet controlled. I was then advised to be induced at 40 weeks as research links to a slight increase of still birth after the 40 th ish week marker www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng3 And in my case all scans showed a massive baby.
However, I had a three day labour, ventouse and EMCS baby was 7lb. In both subsequent pregnancies I had it again, each time earlier ( from 20 and 16 weeks respectively) and as i strictly controlled my diet and felt quite strongly that my first baby just hadn’t been ready I declined induction. However, I did go in each day for monitoring and had scans to check placental / umbilical cord functioning about every 2 days from 40 weeks. This gave me confidence all was functioning well. Although I did worry about shoulder dystocia. Again (!!) scans showed massive babies and again when they eventually put in an appearance (41+5 and 42+1) they weren’t! I couldn’t tolerate carbs at all really from about 28 weeks ( eg 5 strawberries would give me a high reading) but because I wanted a home birth ( 1st experience massively put me off going to hospital) I didn’t want to take metformin as this would have limited my birth choices.
Everyone is different, and every pregnancy is different, but sometimes it’s helpful to hear a different perspective. Diet wise for me I mainly ate meat /veg/ full fat dairy/nuts and did a shit tonne of walking esp. straight after a meal ( and loads of step ups on stairs if I cheated and then panicked about it!!).
It’s certainly not easy and a pain in the arse but short term it can be done.
Best of luck with it.

[Blak]

@tannyb @Xiaohei hey guys, thankyou massively for your replies, makes me feel a lot better that people are going through the same. I had a phone call this morning to tell me my test had come back positive for GD so went in this morning and they gave me all the info I needed to know and also some more appointments. I’m just glad that they picked up on this and we can be monitored closely. Did anyone have any sort of symptoms of them in themselves?

[Teakind]

Hi @blak. I was diagnosed around the same week are you now. I was upset at first but once I got my head around the diet it was ok. The gestational diabetes UK site is great, as is their Facebook page.

Gestational diabetes can cause issues if not controlled so knowing you have it and adapting your diet is really important.

I’m not sure what advice you were given by the midwife around diet but the advice was was given was terrible (for example cereals for breakfast). I followed the gestational diabetes uk diet and never needed any medication throughout.

My DS was a big boy at 9lb5 but it was actually an easier labour than his smaller sister : )

[tannyb]

@Blak you're definitely not alone, I'd actually never heard about GD before my first ever appointment which at this point I was like 'I'm sure that won't happen to me' 🤦🏼‍♀️ however my entire fathers side including him have a form of diabetes so it didn't come as much as a shock. was still quite disheartened. As the post before me mentioned and I'd imagine you'll be told by your clinic/midwife going for a walk after meals for me personally makes a big difference in sugar readings. Trying to do that around Covid hasn't been easy but I've made sure I tend to have my meals at about the same time everyday, so that I can take a 20/30 minute walk after I've had my tea (usually because my tea tends to be my large meal and usually more carbs involved) but it really does bring my sugars down. I struggled a lot was snacks, I really miss tea and chocolate biscuits but my body just won't allow that to happen. But Skinny Foods do a very nice tasty range of sugar free biscuits.
I don't think I had any symptoms before hand, have since been told it might have been why I was feel so tired all the time during second trimester. But other than that I would never have known if it wasn't for the test!

[Xiaohei]

@teakind absolutely. If I’d have followed the ‘advice’ from my local hospital I have no doubt I would have been medicated. E.g. breakfast guidance was toast ( albeit whole meal) with a small glass of orange juice?! Wtf even folk without GD don’t drink juice anymore, it’s just sugar without the fibre! For dessert after dinner they recommended a low fat yogurt - again just sugar in another format. I questioned it when I went back with my 2nd and the nurse told me it was a better swap for people who might have ordinarily had a choc pudding instead. I felt ( and still do) very strongly that it was misleading and women should be given the facts, not treated like morons. It took me a long time to figure out what worked for me- but in terms of a short cut just think none processed foods and full fat. South Beach diet isn’t a bad one if u are looking for ideas and anything ‘Keto’ ( some yummy cheesecake ideas etc). I also found I could tolerate the protein choc bars ( I loved the PHD ones)- but from what I can gather everyone’s experience varies a bit. Best bit is the post delivery toast ( I had 8 pieces - no joke. Followed by a McDonalds, KFC and a pizza each subsequent meal. I didn’t so much fall off the low carb wagon, as smash it up, throw petrol on it and torch the fucker. And when the nurse suggested measuring my bloods, I laughed my head off- baby out. Carbs in.) On a serious note tho, I am now so much more educated about food and choices that ( and I can’t believe I am saying this as GD is a right ball ache and sometimes worry) given the choice i would do it all again..... wow!! I’ve surprised myself xx

[Rubyroost]

Agree about the hospital advice. If I'd have followed smit, I'd have been over the requirements. I couldn't tolerate carbs at breakfast, but could at lunch. I ate smoked salmon and scrambled egg and sausage and scrambled egg a lot for breakfast. 😂
Aldi do lots of packs of healthy grains which I ate a lot. Brown rice, chickpeas etc and had a good selection. I'd microwave those and have with chicken and veg etc. Good luck x

[Rubyroost]

There's a lso a gestational diabetes Facebook UK group which you might find useful initially , but it pissed me off in the end as was full of boasts about how much chocolate people could eat without going over 🙄

[Blak]

Thankyou so much everyone, think I’m slowly starting to get my head around it all now. Did anyone have troubled deliveries because of this? Has any followed specific diet plans?