What you Need to Know About a Diabetic Pregnancy
Introduction
With modern care and monitoring, diabetic mum's to be can look forward to a very high chance of having a perfectly normal, healthy baby. However, they can also look forward to a more complicated pregnancy with extra tests and hospital visits. Planning a baby should start before conception. A diabetic mother should get her blood glucose levels under good control for a month or two at least before trying to conceive. This has been shown to reduce the risks of birth defects and other problems.
You should tell your doctor you are planning a baby so they can help and advise you on the kind of improvements you need to make to your control. If you accidently become pregnant without planning for it, don't panic, but you must get the tightest possible control over your blood glucose levels immediately to minimise abnormality risks.
Diabetic mum's to be face a risk of Macrosomia (large babies) and are often not allowed to go full term. Extra scans can be used to determine the size and growth rate of the foetus, to enable the doctors to assess if an early birth is required.
As with all women, Folic acid supplements are recommended to reduce the risk of spina bifida, you should continue these supplements until at least you are 12 weeks pregnant. Along with Folic acid, there are a number of other factors to consider:
- Alcohol stop or greatly reduce your alcohol intake
- Smoking stop smoking, no excuses
- Caffeine stop or reduce your intake. Watch out for caffeine in soft drinks like cola
- Medication check all medications you are on is safe to the foetus
- Exercise increase your level of fitness if possible, but during pregnancy do not over exert yourself, gentle exercise only
- Diet avoid soft cheeses, eggs, liver, nuts, unpasteurised milk products, cook meat thoroughly, limit your fish consumption and make sure fruit and vegetables are washed, for a full list of diet do's and don'ts ask your Midwife
Recommended Supplier
Diabetic Supplies from DiabetesStore.com
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More Resources
[ www.caringfordiabetes.com ]
[ www.lifescan.com ]
[ www.drgreene.com ]
[ www.diabetes.org
]
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Pages in this section...
[ Introduction ] [ Glucose Monitoring ] [ Hb A1c ] [ Alternative Treatments ] [ Pregnancy ] [ Type 1 and Type 2 Pregnancies ] [ Gestational Diabetes ]
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