Gestational diabetes - chat.

[GreenAventurinee]

Hi, I’ve just had a phone call from a midwife to tell me that I have gestational diabetes.
Can anyone who has it / had it please tell me their experiences.
I had complications last time which meant my son had to go into scbu and I really do wanted to avoid it this time around 😔
What does this mean for me and my baby? And will she be really huge and need support after birth?

Feeling really upset and worried.

Don't stress! I had it in my first pregnancy and also have it now in my second pregnancy. There were a lot of tears at first, but it becomes a part of everyday life. Someone else has already recommended them, but get on the gestational diabetes Uk website, it's pretty much my bible. They also have an extremely helpful Facebook group. The NHS advice is very out of date. Everyone is different on what foods they can tolerate, so it'll take some time for you to learn what your body can handle. I can eat different foods to last pregnancy. Also your tolerances can change over pregnancy too.

Do not blame yourself, you've done nothing wrong, it's our placentas!

Thanks for all the tips and experiences. This site is so valuable at times. Feeling a lot better than I was. There’s a lot of scary things online so you hear real life experiences is great ❤️

How many growth scans did you all need?

I find depending on the day my blood tests will come out differently: yesterday I had porridge and the test reading was over 9 an hour later. Whereas this morning I had porridge again and it was just over 6.

Lots of stir fries and brown rice/pasta for me though. Only a couple more months, then I can have hash browns for breakfast again 😁

I had 2. One when I was first diagnosed and one at 37-ish weeks, which is when they said the baby was 97th centile, he was measuring 90th before that!

I had it with both my pregnancies. Apart from boring diet and annoying blood testing there was nothing really to note. I found managing by diet didn't make much difference to my readings but exercise did. If I went for a 30 min walk after a meal reading's would be fine (pretty much whatever I ate). Was induced a week early with both but they were normal weights and had no problems.

Try not to worry, you get lots of monitoring and GD seems pretty common these days.

Hi @Lavender14, I have had my result back from yesterdays test and randomly my fasting reading was higher than my post glucose reading, and the first reading was over what it should be. The MW was very confused and is talking to the diabetes team. Does this sound similar to your experience?

So what happened with me was my sugars overnight when I fasted just went really high. Then after I had breakfast which I had to be super careful with it went back to normal and I would be in range the rest of the day. But my first readings when I woke up would be way too high. The diabetic nurse and midwife should be able to keep you right on this. Sometimes you can get unreliable readings and they need double checked but for me it was an ongoing pattern.

Did anyone have any signs that the new diet was working for them?
Ive not had my appointment yet but I’ve taken tips from this thread and online, since last week and the last two days Im not crazily thirsty and not going to the toilet even half as much.

Is this a good sign?!

Im going into it blind at the moment but I’ve been VERY strict. Feel I need to be as I had a very balanced diet before which clearly wasn’t good enough…

When you have your appointment they'll explain what foods will help keep your sugars down and which foods are bad etc etc. it's not just as easy as eating healthy unfortunately. Different foods affect people differently aswell. The positive side of having GD is the extra check ups and scans where you get to see your baby 🥰 think I had a scan every 4 weeks!
I ended up being prescribed metformin tablets to help lower my sugars and if they still don't go down you'll get given insulin. As soon as the baby is born all medication will stop.
I had a c-section 3 weeks early as my water broke early and my baby was perfectly healthy and 8lbs 6oz.
She did have to have her blood sugars checked once born, every few hours just to make sure she wasn't at risk of diabetes

I was the same as Lavender14. My morning readings were high and I really struggled with breakfast! Everything I seemed to eat would make it sky rocket! I ended up eating 1 or 2 toast with ham, cheese and 2 boiled eggs every morning, seemed to be the only thing that worked for me

Just a little update. I was given my blood monitor today and all of my results have been below 7.8.

That's great!

Do keep measuring though, it's important to keep an eye on it as it does get worse with time regardless of diet.

I had to be very strict with my diet to keep my levels on target. I found having a string cheese stick after every meal helped a lot. Bonus good side effect was the diet completely eliminated my heart burn!

My snacks were cheese and cashews that seemed to work lol

The GD diet seems so counterintuitive. Porridge: bad. Fried eggs and bacon: great 😆

It’s like the Atkinson diet craze that happened 20 years ago!

Same!! 😂 I was told don't eat rice cause it's bad. I had a takeaway curry the one night with a mound of rice, dreaded taking my blood sugar and it was the lowest it had been 🤷🏻‍♀️
Made the most of that and enjoyed a curry every weekend 😂

I had it twice. The first time I managed fine by diet changes, the second time I needed metformin. All was fine with both births. The main advice I have is:

check out the gestational diabetes Facebook page, it was very helpful to me.

if you do find it hard to keep blood sugar within recommended levels, tell the nurse/Dr concerned. It won't be your fault, it really is the hormones. The medication if needed will only help.

It's not that uncommon, the most important thing is having it picked up in the first place, and you have that covered.

Be nice to yourself, tbh it did make my pregnancies a bit more stressful so just factor that in.

Nuts and babybel are a good staple for when you're out and about. But you do need some carbs when you're pregnant... I'm sure you'll be filled in on all that ... just make sure you're armed with good lower carb stuff when you're out

Best of luck

Thanks for the advice. My levels have been even lower today so far.

How heavy were your babies if you don’t mind me asking x

Dd was 7 pounds 12 ounces. Ds was 8 pounds. My milk took a couple of days to come in but i don't know if that's related or not. It turned up anyway! I remember my GP being really reassuring about it all, which helped. It was a steep learning curve, but you get through it. I know it's corny but day by day, just take it as it comes. Stress doesn't help, that's why I was saying be kind to yourself.

And a walk after dinner, just 20 minutes made a difference for me

Just joining the chat to share my experience with others. I am 21 weeks pregnant and was diagnosed with GD at 26 weeks. I knew I'd have it as I have other conditions that make me resistant to insulin. I didn't have it in my first pregnancy but my baby was almost 9lb, so, the jury is out on if I developed it later...

Anyway, I was managing to control it through diet but only just and to be honest it was depressing. The nurses were saying I should be able to have treats e.g. a couple of biscuits, half a chocolate bar, but there was no way I would be able to do that. I was eating very protein heavy, low carb food, minimal sugar, and even then I was only just keeping within range. And I hated everything I was eating!
I asked them to put me on tablets as although I could manage through diet, they said the tablets were safe through pregnancy, and if it meant I had a bit of flexibility to enjoy food a bit more then I would. I'm still being sensible, relatively low carb although more than before, having the odd treat but keeping it minimal. Currently I am having to work harder to keep my blood sugars up, but that is fine by me as my diet is less restricted.

I'm having growth scans every 2 weeks as bub was looking a bit small, but they think the measurements were out on the first growth scan as he's gone from the 9th centile to the 21st. I also didn't realise growth charts are personalised based on your own weight/height and previous pregnancies. So even if he stays on the 21st centile I'm still likely to have a 7lb - 8.5lb baby.

They have said they won't let me go past 39 weeks and will induce me just short of 39 weeks if I don't go in to labour on my own before that.

Personally I'd say if anyone reading this is finding the third trimester miserable because of very heavy diet restrictions, ask for the medication. I'd had a very stressful pregnancy, with complications all the way through, and the restricted diet for 3 months was probably going to finish off the remains of my sanity. I'm now feeling happy and relatively normal, and am grateful for the extra scans.

Oh and by the way, the diet doesn't seem to have any rhyme or reason when it comes to GD...

For me, bad:
Bread (wholemeal)
New potatoes (even only 5 of them)
Porridge oats with nothing but milk
Brown rice

For me, fine:
A chocolate muffin?!?!
Chinese takeaway
Digestive biscuits

Before anyone says anything, it was actually the GD team that told me to test the water with the takeaway and the muffin, because they have another patient who can't eat anything "healthy" without spiking, and has been eating takeaways 4 days a week, they seem to be the only thing that keep her blood sugar stable apparently...all logic to me said don't do that, but it has been totally fine...I obviously still keep them as treats though as I would outside of pregnancy.

Oops first post should say I'm 31 weeks, not 21!

It’s a very counterintuitive diet at times in terms of what’s healthy for your baby.

I find that the 20 minute walk after a meal does wonders. I am definitely not a morning person though, so a walk is too much to ask after breakfast!

Had an appointment today with my consultant and they set me up with growth scans. She said how great it was that all my readings were in target so far.

Came home and my next reading was 10.5! What the hell has happened. I had a chicken and bacon Mayo wholemeal sandwich and small fruit pot (melon and grapes) from greggs as was rushing back to work. Could it be that?

Also had no breakfast for the first time this week. Could that affect it?
My highest so far has been 7.4 with the majority in the 6’s so 10.5 seems crazy.