Gestational Diabetes.....diet? Impact on childbirth?

[AccidentalMum]

Hi.

My sister has just been diagnosed with gestational diabetes at 20wks and hasn't had any info about diet yet. Is there anything she can start eating or avoiding straight away?

Also she really doesn't want to have a c/s ... is this a given, considering that she and the baby are big already. Do you know where she can get the latest info on this? She had a successful VD following induction with (7lb) DD1.

Thanks.

I have this too. It is pretty bad that she hasn't had advice on diet yet.

For me, my blood sugar is always higher in the morning and porridge, which should be fine, always sends my blood sugar rocketing. Avoid dried fruit in the porridge, as this makes it worse. I usually have bacon and/or eggs for breakfast with a small slice of wholemeal bread.

For lunch, I have a Covent Garden soup followed by a yoghurt. In the evening things are better and I eat a couple of servings of veg with meat or fish and a couple of new potatoes. Jacket potato with beans and cheese has also been fine.

I get very hungry between meals, so snack on things like cheese with apple, hot cross buns. I check packaging and avoid anything with carbs that sugar per 100g over 10g.

Avoid things labelled diabetic, as excessive consumption can have a laxative effect!

I'm 26 weeks and have maintained a controlled level of blood sugar, and average around 5.1. I am on insulin and metformin, and also breastfeeding which lowers blood sugar naturally. Your sister should also aim to exercise for 30 mins or so a day too.

I am having regular scans and my baby is on the 10th centile, so not big! I will be having a c-section, but a friend of mine is pg with her first and has not been told she'll have one. I haven't challenged it because I'm quite happy with the prospect for various reasons.

Hope this helps.

llareggub's diet info is good - loads of stuff online too

just wanted to say that i had gd and did not have a c-section. i think if your sister gets the gd under control she should be more able to avoid the c-section [obvs i don't know her specific circumstances]

If you have time to trawl through a long thread, then find the one that I started for support for GD about 9 months or so ago.

Absolutely not inevitable to have a c-sec.

I diet controlled from 17 weeks, and eventually had a vaginal delivery (induced) at 40+9. Ds was 8lbs 4oz, compared with my dd who had been 9lbs without gd!

Avoid sugar and refined carbs. Eat more protein with small portions of unrefined carbs and plenty of veg. Go easy on fruit, and def no fruit juice.

I also had to have egg and one carefully chosen slice of toast for breakfast every day.

The other thing I would add is that she shouldn't feel like she's failed. I tried really hard to diet control but it didn't work. I felt very down about it, particularly when I started on insulin as I thought it was related to something I'd failed to do, or that the nurse thought I'd secretly been guzzling cake. I've been told that whilst I've got it under control now, it will get progressively worse as my pregnancy progresses, typically after 32 weeks or so.

Thanks guys...will look for the thread. I have been looking for protecting establishinh BFing advice for her too, but hunkermunker links don't seem to work anymore (or Kellymom's!). Any pointers and links would be appreciated for that too.

Is that specifically relating to GD? My hospital has a policy of routinely admitting babies of women with diabetes to special care, which is contrary to NICE guidelines. Of course, this won't help establish breastfeeding at all, and I am fighting hospital policy on this.

I had a c-section and did struggle to get breastfeeding established, but with the help of mumsnet, and me stubbornly expressing for 6 weeks, I got there in the end and my DS is still breastfeeding at 2.3 years, although I only managed to exclusively breastfeed for a short time.

Ah lovely - was no way my ds was getting any formula, so that was something that I was interested in too. She should try to hand express some colostrum ante-natally - normally encouraged from 38 weeks. Hospital should be able to give her little syringes to freeze it in. Don't take to hospital with her for birth, but make sure that someone is on hand to bring it in if needed.

Unless her baby is symptomatic, she shouldn't let them take its blood sugar until at least 3 hours after birth, as blood sugars take a while to stabilise regardless of gd. A second test should be done another 3 hours after that. Baby will need 2 consecutive 'good' readings before being discharged (although they'll most likely want to keep them in for 24 hrs for observation anyway). A 'good' reading is above 2.4 or 2.6 iirc. Will try and check which.

If readings are lower than this then baby will want breastfeed and expressed colostrum, or formula if she is happy with this (I wasn't and hunker wasn't). Dextrose can be given as an alternative if she is against formula and doesn't have any expressed milk.

Most importantly, she should try to feed baby immediately after birth (within first half hour ideally), as this is best way to stabilise sugars.

Will see if I can find working hunker links.

That is really helpful advice, I'll add that to my list of demands for my delivery in 12 weeks!

Expressing colostrum antenatally
hunker's personal experience

Thank you so much. She has been so looking forward to BFing again.