A healthy, happy pregnancy – with diabetes

Posted on 3 February 2015

While no mom-to-be would wish a chronic condition on herself, the good news is that it’s perfectly possible to have a healthy pregnancy with diabetes. Bridget McNulty, editor of Sweet Life magazine, shares her experience: watch the video and read her tips.

In the olden days – as recently as a decade or two ago – women with type 1 diabetes were told that having a baby wasn’t advisable, both for the mom and the baby. The strain pregnancy places on the body, the risks of stillbirth, birth defects and the necessity for extremely tight control all painted a rather grim picture of diabetes and pregnancy.

Luckily, that’s no longer the case. These days, if you have either type 1 or type 2 diabetes, it’s entirely possible to have a relaxed, healthy pregnancy. Here are a few tips that helped me juggle pregnancy and type 1 diabetes:

1. Have a great team. You need a gynae who understands diabetes and an endocrinologist (diabetes specialist) whom you trust – you’ll be seeing them every month, so it’s important that you get on well.
2. Be prepared. Discipline is really important during pregnancy – your HbA1c (average three-month blood sugar count) needs to be below six percent, which is lower than the average seven percent recommended. What does this mean? Frequent injections of insulin, even more frequent blood sugar tests and very little cheating!
3. Find healthy snacks. There’s no chance of the classic pregnancy binge, so it’s vital to have healthy treats on hand that won’t spike your sugar. My go-to treats were dark chocolate-covered goji berries and roasted almonds.
4. Take it easy. Dealing with pregnancy is overwhelming enough (hello hormones!) but throw in a chronic condition that requires constant monitoring as well and it’s easy to feel exhausted. Taking it one step at a time and resting as much as possible makes it all a lot easier to deal with.
5. Accept help. You have a support network around you who all want to help – so let them. It will be much easier to enjoy this special time if you’re not doing it alone.

My best tip, though? Focus on the end goal: your sweet baby who needs your help to grow to his or her full potential. A pregnancy with diabetes may be more work than a pregnancy without, but it’s work with the greatest reward of all!

What are the three kinds of diabetes?
• Type 1 diabetes is when the pancreas no longer functions and daily insulin injections (or an insulin pump) are essential to stay alive.
• Type 2 diabetes results either from not enough insulin being made in the body or the insulin that is made not being processed effectively. It can be treated with diet and exercise if caught early enough, or with insulin tablets or injections.
• Gestational diabetes is diagnosed during pregnancy and often lasts no longer than the duration of the pregnancy – as soon as the baby is born, the mother is no longer diabetic. Those who’ve had gestational diabetes are at greater risk of type 2 diabetes later in life, however.

 

The information provided in this article was correct at the time of publishing. At Mediclinic we endeavour to provide our patients and readers with accurate and reliable information, which is why we continually review and update our content. However, due to the dynamic nature of clinical information and medicine, some information may from time to time become outdated prior to revision.