diabetes during pregnancy

Oh and yes it goes away after pregnancy.

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"Be still sad heart, and cease repining. Behind the clouds, the sun is shining. Thy fate is the common fate of all. Into each life, a little rain must fall." -Longfellow

Oh, one more thing. Diabetes is diabetes, and that is dangerous! Whatever the cause, and whether it goes away again after pregnancy or not, it can still be doing her damage while she's got it. Happened twice with my sister-in-law, and it damaged the retinas of her eyes to the extent that she needed laser surgery to stop it getting worse, and try to reverse as much as they could of the damage. Your wife won't lose by playing it safe and really sticking to the diet in the way it is intended to control diabetes, even if she's only marginal or even mostly on the safe side of the line. She could stand to lose a lot if she doesn't take it seriously.

I have 2 kids, and had it both times. First time, the doctor kept telling me I would probably need insulin but I was able to control it with diet. Second time, I had a midwife, and she said I probably knew what I was doing so she didn't worry. 2nd time all I did was test for ketones.

A diabetic diet in my experience isn't about quantity, so your wife shouldn't be "starving" - she should be eating lots of protein and veggies, sort of a South Beach/Atkins plan. Low carbs and nothing with sugar. It's amazing how many things have sugar in them. By testing frequently she will see what foods cause her sugar to spike. For me the worst offender was spaghetti with marinara sauce. Rice is a surprise too - white rice is one of the worst things for diabetics besides sugar itself.

Look into the glycemic index: http://www.diabetesnet.com/food-diabetes/glycemic-index and another good site is http://www.southbeach-diet-plan.com/...cfoodchart.htm . This will give you an idea of what is good and bad to eat now.

My 1st pregnancy I gained 5 pounds. Total, baby weight and all. 2nd pregnancy I gained zero pounds. In fact after I delivered, I weighed less than when I got pregnant. Doctors weren't concerned; it was all about the diabetic diet. Of course you don't want to lose weight during pregnancy; that's what the ketones test is all about. I think.

Both babies were perfectly healthy. And the very next day I was eating donuts. Mmm.....good grief, that's all I wanted. Donuts and ice cream! I told hubby he'd better not bother coming back to the hospital room without a dozen glazed.

15 years later, all is well. I have other health problems, but knock on wood, diabetes is not one of them.

Good luck!

I have had diabetes for 38 years... so it was not gestational diabetes, but I can help you with this since I was a nurse who worked with diabetics as well and I also had 3 successful pregnancies.

- Can you describe what she eats during the day and the number of calories?
- Is her diet one of carbohydrate counting or total calorie counting?
- Does she have a blood checking meter and does she check it before and after meals?

Gestational diabetes is a weird thing because scientists think it is similar to "insulin resistance" but it is caused by the fetus/placenta. It does not necessarily mean that she will have diabetes after her pregnancy. Of course if her diet is full of overly processed foods, and/or she has a problem with her weight it could be a different story. Sometimes though, gestational diabetes is a foreshadowing of a pancreatic problem that could lead to diabetes. We really don't know a huge amount as to why things happen. Even after having it so long, I still read new things as new discoveries are made.

As another poster said, checking ketones is also important because ketoacidosis is when the body is actually "digesting itself". In a diabetic it is caused because there is not enough insulin to help digest/process the glucose in the blood (all foods including fats and proteins eventually break down into glucose). What happens then is the kidneys try to flush the glucose out of the blood, you pee constantly, and because you are losing water you are thirsty all the time and you drink more. The more liquid you excrete, the more salt and other minerals you are excreting. The ketones come from the digestion of protein and fat, in this case, the persons own protein and fat. Since they are not easily excreted from the body, the body tries to flush them out again by peeing. So, between the glucose in the body being flushed out and the ketones being flushed out, dehydration and electrolyte imbalance as well as a host of other problems can happen.

Since your wife is under a doctors care, she very likely will not have any problems, but she may want to seek out the advice of a doctor who has more experience with diabetes.

Just wanted to point out that there's a difference between ketosis and ketoacidosis. The former is not dangerous and the latter is a serious condition that is rare in type 2 and gestational diabetics. While ketosis is not dangerous to adults, the effect on a fetus is unknown and not something to be messed with. That's why I recommended ketostrips.

Fats are the one food that doesn't raise the blood glucose level.

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"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world" - Thorin Oakenshield to Bilbo Baggins, in JRR Tolkien's "The Hobbit"

Haven't read everyone post as so many but here goes on some things.

The 1 hr test she done she failed it. Her test came back at 164 an should been like 130. So she took a 3 hr test an her fasting was normal but after she drank the orange glusoe her blood sugar shot up to almost 200 then after so long it started to drop back to normal.


The doctors she is seeing is pros in diabetes. The doc had been doing it for over 25yrs an the dietian over 15yrs so they know what doing.


They told her too test her blood 4 times a day so they gave her a meter to be able to test her blood. Plus she test her urine first thing in the mornings for ketones an sometimes she has a trace or none at all never anymore than that. She suppose too get like 2300 cal a day. So of what know about that test it showing the baby is getting what it needs an her too.

First off she got a blood meter that check her sugar. She test her sugar 4 times a day. First thing of the morning after fasting for 8 hrs, then 2 hrs after eating breakfast, 2 hrs after lunch, 2 hrs after supper. She eats of the morning like egg with slice of whole wheat bread with little oj or some type of juice but only like a 1/2 glass. Then she will test her blood sugar 2 hrs later then after that can eat a snack an she sometimes eats like fresh fruits or like sometype of meat. When lunch time comes she eats like maybe a salad with turkey on top of it an very little salad dressing. Then 2 hrs later test again an so on.

We did find out yesterday that she has gained 2lbs not lost any. All her bloodwork she had came back good saying her body is making insulin but the babys placenta is keeping her sugar a little too high during the fasting so they put her on insulin shot at night. She suppose too stay on her diet that they told her but said she's doing great. They also said she can drink a drink after a meal called boost that only has 4grams of sugar but has plenty of protein. It suppose to help with her being hungry but she still has to eat meals an have snacks alone with the drink.


On does she eat lots of sweets the answer is NO. She eats plenty of fresh vegs, fruits an for meats she eats like fish, chicken, an livers at times. On drinks she drinks she will have like a diet sirrea mist, sprite zero an drinks about 3 20oz of water or more. Juices she will drink like 1/2 glass of OJ, cranberry juice or grape juice. She drinks some milk but not alot due to makes her sick at times but she does drink a 1/2 glass of 2% milk not whole milk. She not a big bread eatter if does she eats whole wheat, she will not eat bagels or any white breads at all. There is other things my wife will not eat. She hates rice unless it's like a little rice with china food but we don't eat much of that at all.

My Wife is sticking with the diet they got her on but it makes her feel like she is straving but since meet with the doctors an all yesterday an found out she can drink boost or another drink with plenty of protien that is good. She tried a boost lastnight after eating she wasn't hungry no more so thats good I think. but she's going by what they say not doing the other way.

We go back to the doctors in 2 weeks to see how doing. They are sure when she has the baby the problem will leave in no time as her body is producing the insulin like suppose too just it's temp for now. The baby isn't big at all. They will do a us when goes back to check on baby an see how big it is but of now they say its normal size.

Someone said about been thirty all the time. My wife isn't, too beat it all she didn't have any signs of been a gestoilal diabetic at all. The only way we found out is when she had the testing done. She has to drink plenty of water due too keep from cramping but she never had any signs of other until done the testing. She's in her last tri so we don't have much longer before we have our baby. At the begining wasn't no signs of sugar problems or in 2nd tri it the 3rd tri we found it out.

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Work hard too keep wife happy..

I just wanted to mention, that during pregnancy, eating more protein rather than relying on fat is a good idea because of the stress on the kidneys. Pregnancy itself puts lots of stress on the kidneys, and so does fat digestion due to the ketones. In regular DM, eating lots of extra fats like nuts, avocados, cream cheese, black olives, etc is good. But in pregnancy, women do have to watch kidneys too, and make sure they aren't passing ketones. It's certainly ok to eat those things, but just try to rely on extra protein more than the fats, and watch for ketone output. Plus, as I said before, make sure she takes the prenatal vitamins. You want to prevent pre-eclampsia, and to do that, you try to maintain kidneys really well. In pregnancy with DM, it's so important to guard kidney function. That's one of the reasons pre-eclampsia is more common in diabetic women. It's all about kidney function.

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Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

My wife has been taking prental vitmains even before got pregnant. Reason was we had been tryn an knowing we would get pregnant again so she started taking the prental vitmains with fishoil for months an still taking them. Her BP is all normal everytime been to doctors. Everytime we go to doc they check her urine,bp an all. No signs of pre clampasia at all.

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Work hard too keep wife happy..

Wife started her insulin shot an her sugar is staying lower now. It seems just need a small insulin boost to help with her sugar. I hope too goodness she don't have to up the dosage. I'm very proud of my wife of giving herself a shot in the hip. I watch her and I just about grize from the thought of a needle been put in myself.

She's brave..

Guess at time's women are braver than us wimpy men on things or at least me.

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Work hard too keep wife happy..

You never know what you are capable of doing until you have no other choice. Never underestimate what a parent would be willing to do for the health of their child. If you were the one who had to stick a needle in himself every day in order to have a healthy baby, I think you'd be able to do it.

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"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world" - Thorin Oakenshield to Bilbo Baggins, in JRR Tolkien's "The Hobbit"