Pregnancy and diabetes video

[JoeFreeman]

Hi there,

I hope everyone is well. I posted on here a few months ago asking what you would like to see in a diabetes and pregnancy related video. Many of you kindly replied which was really helpful, thank you.

I was wondering if you'd be kind enough to answer a couple of questions to further help make sure we'll be saying the right things in the video...

Have you had a baby since you were diagnosed with diabetes? If so, were you given any instructions or info whilst you were for preparing for the pregnancy?

We would like to know what impact the information had on you, for example ? did it worry you or make you more confident, did you get enough information, how was it given to you and was there anything you wish you had been told and weren?t?

If you've got any questions or comments, do let me know.

Many thanks!

Joe

Joe Freeman
Digital Communities Manager
Diabetes UK

 

[PhoebeC]

Hi Joe,

Im Currenlty 29 weeks pregnant. And doing quite well. I have had type one for nearly 5 years.

Any more info at all on pregnancy and diabetes would be great. The lack of info online, or books or whatever is crazy. Other than this site or phoning my team there is nothing.

I was always told i need to tell my dr if we wanted to start trying for a baby. But in a loose sort of way, like it was something for the future and should stay in the futurre.

Well we didnt plan it. I am very lucky that my diabetes was quite good before and always has been so my GP had no issues when he found out, i know some people have had a hard time if they havent planned it with medical people. He Got me booked in to see the midwife the next week and then the diabetic/antinatal team at the hospital the week after, was only about 4 weeks gone when we saw my GP.

I think more info on why your need to sort your body out before hand would be really good. I wish we had known why it is better to plan pregnancys. I have been really lucky so far, but i dread to think how hard it would have been if i wasnt in a quite good way before.

Thanks,

Phoebe

 

[Twitchy]

Hi Joe,

It's great to hear something is being done about this! I have had T1 for 32 years and about the only time I heard any mention of pregnancy (that stuck in my mind lol) was on DAFNE. After that I transfered to the care of the doc on the course who was brilliant. Basically I knew that it was possible to have a baby as a diabetic & that I had to get my HbA1c down to 6.5%, I think the doc also told me about the 3mg folic acid requirement. When I first met the specialist obstetric consultant (11 wks preg), he told me I had a 70% chance of a C section, which I hadn't heard before - not sure if this was due to the length of time since diagnosis, or just the diabetes itself though.

It's really hard to get the balance right re info - I think people ought to be aware that a diabetic's pregnancy will be treated as a 'high risk' pregnancy (eg risk of complications for baby &/or mum, no false hopes about home births, tons of clinic appts to attend, etc). The need for good control is paramount for people to know, but it needs to be supported; both with practical advice on how to maintain good control, & emotional support - personally I found my two pregnancies extremely stressful & quite isolating - I couldn't relate to the other mums (nct natural birth types! 😱) & in fact second time round set up a local diabetic mums group which now has it's own facebook page (and growing group size! - we're 'leicsdiabeticmums' for anyone in the midlands btw! 😉) Positive stories (not all the 'smooth sailing' stories either!) would be great to hear about too - apart from this forum I'd never met another (T1) diabetic, let alone a pregnant one so had no 'experience' to tap into as it were.

Hope that helps?!

 

[Lizzzie]

Hi Joe

No baby yet, 17 weeks pregnant.

Previous info has been excellent. My team always told me that when i wanted a baby, I needed to prepare my levels first so should talk to them and plan it (if they'd have told me that this 'planning' can take months it would have been useful - until you decide you want a baby, it doesn't seem that urgent - when you decide, you want all the pre-conception stuff to be over so you can start trying immediately. The 'we'll need 3 months consecutive good HA1bCs...' thing could have been wearing).

WOuld have been nice to know that it can make you feel lousy / foul up your levels (and that this is NORMAL) / make you sick, not so's to put people off, but just so they don't get horribly worried about themselves when they don't feel that they're coping early on.

My team were very good at sitting down with me, first in the pre-conception clinic, then when I got pregnant and again every 4 weeks since. They've made sure I've understood what I should be doing e.g. with folic acid, how often and why the scans. They've already prepared me for possibly being induced slightly earlier than usual if, e.g. the baby is too big. I've never asked them a question without getting a good answer and I feel very, very safe with my team (so much so that i travel 100 miles from work at the mo to go back to them for antenatal treatment.) They talk calmly about any risks (big babies, extra fluid, need to take higher folic acid doses etc) or problems and my DSN calls me to check on my levels.

That's as far as I've got at 17 weeks.

 

[Twitchy]

Just thought of another couple of details! 😱 Firstly might be useful to know from day one that it's more or less the norm to not be allowed to go past 38 weeks & why (because experience is that the placenta starts to fail earlier in diabetic women than in 'normal' women)

Also the warning signs to watch out for in later pregnancy - especially serious & 'inexplicable' hypos, as these can be a sign (so I was told) that the placenta's starting to go off/fail (as it were, my words!) and baby needs delivering...this last symptom seems not to be that well known even amongst midwives / non diabetic specialst docs, so all the more reason for diabetic mums themselves to be aware of the need to flag this up! This actually happened to me & it was only because I demanded to be seen by the specialist doc (him having previously told me to do so in those circumstances) that he was able to deliver baby in time - awfully 'pink' for ages as the oxygen levels had been getting dangerously low. Scary!!!!

Cheers,

Twitchy

 

[JoeFreeman]

Thanks so much for the comments so far, really helpful. If anyone has anything else, that'd be great too 🙂

We really need to get the video and the messaging right, so I hope you all don't mind me posting things like this on here. It'll mean we get things right and the most needed messages out there though which can only be a good thing!

Thanks again 🙂

Joe