my niece is 6 weeks pregnant and she is diabetic , not sure what form but she takes her blood sugar before every meal and does insulin too. does anyone have information about the complications that can arrise for a diabetic during pregnancy , ive heard it can be dangerous . any info wil be greatly appreciated .. Thank You ~Molly ~

I had Gest. Diabetes with 2nd child. Kept sugars low, watched everything I ate, kept a journal and all Dr. appt. I was strick with myself (X-mas).
My child was born healthy, but early I think because my body stopped making insulin and I was dependent on him. I lost alot of weight after he was born and had the shakes all the time.
A friend did not take her readings with g. d.-strips were "too expensive" even though insurance paid for her insulin and other meds. Her son was born with heart valve defect he will live with until it must be replaced.
A lady with Diabetes 1 from church did not take care of her levels her child was born with severe physical/mental deformaties.
I suggest your niece watch herself. Set up a diet/schedule and stick to it. See her dr every time. Get ultra sounds when requested.

I have type 1 diabetes, and had my son ten years ago. Firstly as your neice probably knows, keeping your blood sugars as low as possible is important, but not dangerously low!! One thing I have to say is that when diabetics go low in sugar, one of the symptoms is feeling tired! well also being pregnant you can feel tired too! please point out to her that if she ever feels tired, don't assume it is because she is pregnant, and take a nap, make sure she takes her blood sugar reading to make sure the tiredness is not down to her sugar going low! I wish someone had told me this at the time, as I sat down for a while and closed my eyes thinking I was tired due to being pregnant, but ended up in hospital. But if I was to get pregnant again, I am now aware of that mistake!

She will be checked through her whole pregnancy, and the baby will be constantly monitored!! many many diabetic women go on to have healthy babys, you will always hear the horrid stories, but with normal pregnancies you also hear bad stories.

Best of luck to her, it will be a challenge, but well worth it!!

I agree with the last poster. It seems that when you are diabetic and pregnant, all of the things you normally feel during pregnancy are more extreme. I took blood sugars 12x a day, had appts every two weeks from the beginning, and had too many ultrasounds to count. Everyone, mainly me, had to be on top of things all of the time.

I went through a type 1 pregnancy and had beautiful babies 3 times so while I say to be careful, I also say a huge CONGRATULATIONS!!! :D

my niece is 6 weeks pregnant and she is diabetic , not sure what form but she takes her blood sugar before every meal and does insulin too. does anyone have information about the complications that can arrise for a diabetic during pregnancy , ive heard it can be dangerous . any info wil be greatly appreciated .. Thank You ~Molly ~

Hi I am type 2 and 14 weeks pregnant. I think alot of things are said that are not true almost like there trying to scare us into good sugar control. If you have good sugar control the baby will be fine. My A1C in Dec was 6.2% In Mar it was 5.9% I was freaking out at first because of everything I heard and because this Baby was not planned. I am glad I had good sugar control Before getting pregnant. So if your neice has good control In the normal range relax everything will be fine. Good control is very important in the first trimester thats when things can happen because everything is developing. Good control in the 2nd and third trimester is important so the baby is not to big to deliever naturaly. Good Luck Tell your neice to get an A1C test after being pregnant for exactly 3 month it will tell her what her control has been threw the first trimester if it's under 7% relax. Good Luck

Actually, a large baby can be the least of your worries. Granted, I am a type 1 so my experiences have been more extreme. In the end though, diabetes is diabetes. Tight control in the last trimester is EXTREMELY important. The sugar that you digest is absorbed through the placenta and reaches the baby. The insulin that you produce does NOT reach the baby. All of this means that the baby's pancreas has to fight every high blood sugar. After the baby is born, the sugar source is gone but the pancreas still produces too much insulin for up to 48 hours. This can lead to extreme hypoglycemia. My son had a blood sugar of 7 mg/dl after his birth. This can lead to mental retardation and possibly death.
There are also other things that can happen like the placenta breaking down, which happened to me also, leading to Interuterine Growth Retardation, IUGR. There is also an increased risk of fetal death with high blood sugars.
This is not meant to be an alarmist post. Simply a post to let you know that the things that they warn you about can and do happen to diabetic women. I, luckily, have 4 beautiful children. Two of them, have developmental issues contributed to their births. We will never know if my diabetes caused them but it did cause their premature deliveries. Good luck and congratulations

I totally agree with Mommyof4 above. I have four children, the first two were born with no problems and before I was diagnosed with diabetes. During the 30th week of my third pregnancy I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and put straight onto insulin. A week later I went into premature labour. He spent four weeks in special care and was soon diabnosed with cerebral palsy which the specialist says is due to uncontrolled blood sugars during the pregnancy.

Two years later I had another pregnancy and the gestational diabetes was picked up early this time. I was put straight onto insulin and kept a much tighter control of my sugars. Altough the birth was five weeks premature, she is a healthy child.

So I hope this helps you to understand that tight control over blood sugars is paramount to having a healthy baby and at the end of the day, that's what it's all about.

I wish your neice all the luck in the world.

You need to know that gestational diabeties is not the same as diabeties. They do not have high risk pregnancy and they only get high sugar after the baby is fully formed so there is no chancve of birth defects like if your sugar is to high during the developement stage first 12 weeks!!!!!

Gestational diabetes can occur at any stage in a pregnancy. It is true that it is more common as the pregnancy takes a bigger toll on the body but it can happen at any time. Quite a few women start out a pregnancy with gestational diabetes if they have had it in a prior pregnancy.
I am sorry to say that you are misinformed. I recommend going to the American Diabetic Association website that has a special section on Gestational Diabetes and tips on gestational care. Good luck

I totally agree with mommyof4, like me you have type 1 diabetes, which is quite a bit different to type 2 and gestational! Also on another point, if sugars are not tightly controlled and kept down, then the baby will grow large and quicker than the organs, so that the baby will have to be delivered before the organs have had a chance to grow and form properly. So these babies are then put in with the premature babies!

So it is not so much about a big babie being difficult to deliver, but about the growth of the babie matching the growth of the organs!

Mommyof4 I have had one baby, and would like another! It was difficult, but well worth it in the end! I think the fact that you have had four as a type 1 diabetic is fantastic, and you deserve credit for that!

Mommyof4 I have had one baby, and would like another! It was difficult, but well worth it in the end! I think the fact that you have had four as a type 1 diabetic is fantastic, and you deserve credit for that!

Thanks so much. I have to admit that I only have 3 diabetic pregnancies under my belt. My first daughter was born when I was 18 and I wasn't diagnosed until I was 21.
I totally agree with all you had to say. Sad to say, macrosomic babies also have a tendency to deal with weight issues as they get older. Up to half of women who have gestational diabetes go on to have type 2 diabetes. There are just so many factors.
I wish you all the luck in the world in having another baby. It does take a toll on you but is so worth it. I decided to stop at 4 when they told me I had tempted fate enough for a few women!!!LOL I can't imagine living back in the days where they told Type 1's not to get pregnant at all.

Thanks very much for wishing me luck for another pregnancy! You say you only had three diabetic pregnancies, only three, as I said I've only had one, and if you read one of my earlier replies to this thread, I ended up in intensive care, and was lucky to survive! Like you was checking my blood sugar lots everyday. to the point of obsessive! it was a real challenge, so three times you should be proud.

I know what you mean about the past stories of shouldn't have kids, when I was twenty I remember the mother of my then boyfriend telling me, "your never be able to have kids you know" in front of her son, well my cousin had just had a child with his type 1 diabetic wife! people can be ignorant! Years ago doctors used to recommend us diabetics to limit ourselves to 2 babies only, It's nice to know that now with proper care, monitoring, etc etc we can now have healthy babies, and the stigma is happily going!

Did you manage to have a normal birth amongst the three you had? also what was there weight?

Regards

[QUOTE=VAUXHALL OMEGA]
I know what you mean about the past stories of shouldn't have kids, when I was twenty I remember the mother of my then boyfriend telling me, "your never be able to have kids you know"

Some people!URGH
My first two diabetic pregnancies were with a pump. My daughter was born at 37 weeks weighing 5lbs 8oz. My water broke and it was a very typical delivery. She had one low blood sugar but was with my the rest of the time. We were out of there 24 hours later. Then came my son. He was born at 36 weeks and weighed 5lbs 6oz. He had his cord around his neck so it was an emergency c-section. He was the one with the blood sugar of 7mg/dl. He had that low and then another but after that he was fine. Even after the c-section, we left within 48 hours. They just had a rule that they had to have 3 good blood sugars in a row to get to go home. My last pregnancy was with shots and was a problem from the start. My diabetes took wild swings and I thought I knew it all so I didn't control things as well. The placenta broke down and he had to be delivered at 35 weeks. He weighed 4lbs 8oz, had to be in the hospital for 9 days to get him to start drinking a bottle, was tube fed, and still has issues with being underweight. He also has speech issues and sensory issues. Proof, in my mind, what diabetes not tightly controlled can do.
You just tell yourself that you only have to be that tight for 9 months. It also helped me keep control when I thought about another person depending on me. One of the biggest things also is getting to the point where you don't beat yourself up for every little things. There will be highs and there will be lows no matter how tight you try to keep it.
I am glad to see someone else who has the attitude that you live with diabetes but there is so much more to life than having this condition ;)

I am diabetic but not preganant nor have I ever been.....but my bestfriend had g.d. during her pregnancy and everything was fine she now has a healthy 3 year old boy . I I talk to my dr about pregnancy and being diabetic...she says I will need more apts than the average person mainly to watch the babies growth and also keep on top of my sugars like I normally do. I am sure ur niece will be fine as long as she continues to seek proper care for both her conditions and continue maintaining her sugars like she should be doing regardless of a pregnancy or not.

The only thing she should know is that with diabetes and pregnancy shs is more prone to having a larger baby which could result in a C-section however her obgyn will keep track of the babies progress and determine what is best for both mother and child!

Well here's to wishin ur niece a very happy and healthy pregnancy!