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In the past, pregnancy was riskier for women with diabetes. Today, with good medical care and rigorous self-management, most women with diabetes can have a successful pregnancy and a healthy baby – provided that they pay close attention to glucose levels and work hard to keep them as close as normal as possible even before conception. That’s because hyperglycemia can increase the risk of a miscarriage or of birth defects in the baby.

When women maintained strict blood glucose control prior to conceiving and during the first trimester, the
incidence of malformations was much lower than in women with diabetes who did not.

Types of Diabetes in Pregnancy

There are three main types of diabetic pregnancies :

1. Mothers with Type 1 (insulin dependent) diabetes
2. Mothers with Type 2 (non-insulin dependent) diabetes
3. Mothers with gestational diabetes diagnosed during pregnancy. This usually occurs between the 24h and 28th week of pregnancy.

How Diabetes affects your baby

- The size of the baby may be bigger, which may cause more difficulty during labour. Delivery by
Caesarian may be necessary.
- Baby may develop hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) after delivery
- Baby may develop jaundice (yellowing of skin)
- Baby may have difficulty breathing

Planning for a baby

Whatever the type of diabetes, it is very important to achieve good diabetic control before you plan to have a baby. Your doctor and his diabetes care team will be in a better position to help you plan for a safe pregnancy.

During Pregnancy

Insulin is the only form of treatment that is recommended during pregnancy. Therefore, the dose may be changed quite often, usually increased to a maximum of 4 times daily, to cope with the way your body deals with excess sugar.

- Measure your blood sugar level before meals, at bedtime, and 2 hours after eating according to your doctor or diabetes care team’s instructions. Let your doctor know if there are unusual readings.

- Control your diet. Refrain from unnecessary food. It may help to take frequent but small meals e.g. breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, mid-afternoon snack, dinner, mid-evening snack and bedtime snack

-Exercise regularly e.g. swimming or walking

-Inject your insulin as prescribed by your doctor

The information was extracted from “A Holistic Guide To Diabetes”. You can also get your copy of their free ebook “Signs of Diabetes” from http://www.e-healthytimes.com/ebook/signs-of-diabetes.html.  For a natural way to curing diabetes, read more about it at GlucosCare Tea.

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