Hiya,
I'd had T1 for 28 years when I had my first baby, 31 when I had my second (underactive thyroid too);
Baby number 1: I was told from the get-go that I had a 70% chance of a C section, as this would be more 'controlled' (ie could be planned during the day, with all the consultant support necessary available). At 33 wks I was admitted for severe pre-eclampsia, whisked upstairs & plugged with drips in both hands, insulin / glucose in one & I think something to stop me fitting in the other (after the experts all had a gaggle & row in the room over what they could give without making things worse! 😱 Jabbed with a couple of steroid shots & told they might have to deliver that day, but would try to see how long they could sustain the pregnancy for baby's sake. Michael was born by "semi-elective emergency C-section" at 34w 5 days, weighing 5lb 12oz. I had been terrified of having a section, but actually the staff were brilliant - they really did their best to still make it a good experience. I got to say hello to him briefly before they whisked him off to the scbu & did checks. We had an initial scare with a shadow on his lung, but it went thankfully! He was in an incubator, fed via a nose tube for a few days (formula as no-one had told me about expressing or helped me to do it post-op), and then needed photo therapy for jaundice for about a week & a half from memory. I am not aware that he had any hypos. So all in all, a highly medicalised, stressful arrival! I always struggled to breastfeed him, partly as he really just didn't get how to suckle and partly because we had to give him formula top-ups via a bottle as he was so small, but not being daft he soon twigged that bottle is easier than breast! I did try expressing, but even with a really good pump a) it is incredibly time consuming as you have to express, feed, wash & sterilise bottles rather than either breast feed or bottle feed alone. That said, he thrived on aptamil, and is now a robust, strapping big 3yr old who certainly seems to have a robust immune system! 🙂
Baby number two was born after I reported to hospital having had a couple of really big hypos - my consultant had warned me that unexplained hypos in 3rd Tri can be an indicator that the placenta is starting to fail - no-one really knows why but this tends to happen in diabetics earlier than 'normal' mums, hence the no later than 38wks approach most docs take with diabetic mums! My doc decided baby needed to come out that day, so again a 'semi-elective emergency C-section'. Charlotte was born at 35w 6 d, weighing a hefty 7lb 13 oz as she was macrosomic - though apparently not due to poor control (HbA1c of 6.4-5.7% whilst pregnant). I did actually get to have a few hours of skin to skin in recovery after they had checked her over which was AMAZING! Wonderful! They did then take her to scbu overnight because they thought her breathing was laboured & her sugar levels were low (so although I was hand expressing & she'd had a bit of a breast feed & cup feed by then she got a dose of formula too!). I got her back early the next morning, having asked every hour or so! Breastfeeding went better this time, although because she lost more than 10% of birth weight we were instructed to top-up again, which I think can mean you don't end up producing enough as your body doesn't get the signal from extra feeding to produce more milk.... then gastric reflux kicked in, so ended up expressing milk to add infant gaviscon to, whilst toddler & baby wrangling, so same problems as last time time-wise, only more so...doh!
Long story short - we did nct lessons first time & had a bad experience with some judgemental 'alphamummies' in the group. My C sections were NOT as scary as I'd been led to beleive, in fact the staff went out of their way to make them a good experience. Breast feeding is probably 'best' (& if it is going well is a lovely bonding experience), but only if it's not driving you to despair because baby won't co-operate, or it's just not working for you! Diabetes control post birth can be really hard, mainly because you have a demanding baby to juggle too (!), so that last thing you need is to feel judged by other people's attitudes to motherhood and whether or not they feel you conform to them... You just have to go with what works best for you & baby - after all, all that really matters is that you & baby are healthy - anything else is just lifestyle choice! 🙂
Wishing you all the very best in your own experience - just be kind to yourself! 😱)
