Pregnancy -

Pregnancy and diabetes

Worried about your pregnancy or the health of your baby? Here’s some good news you should know. You have an excellent chance of having as safe a pregnancy and as healthy a baby as any woman. With modern antenatal care and by keeping tight control of your blood sugar, it’s perfectly possible for a woman with diabetes to have a healthy pregnancy.

It just takes planning and control. Women with diabetes need to discuss their pregnancies with their doctor from the moment they start thinking about getting pregnant. This is because it’s important to make sure blood sugar levels are well under control before conceiving a baby.

Considering pregnancy

So what should you do if you’re considering becoming pregnant? The first thing you and your partner should do is see your doctor and other members of your diabetes care team.

Together, you can review your general health and discuss any concerns you may have. You can also discuss how to achieve tight control of your blood sugar well before a possible pregnancy.

Planning a safe pregnancy

So the key to a safe pregnancy with diabetes is planning:

Begin planning before you become pregnant
Get your blood sugar consistently under control for 3-6 months before you start to try for a baby
Be prepared to keep up an excellent blood sugar control all through your pregnancy.

Excellent blood sugar control

Why do you need to have excellent control of your blood sugar during pregnancy? There are several very important reasons:

It will help minimise the risk of birth defects
It will help your baby stay healthy and grow properly in the womb
It will prevent the baby from growing too large. Large babies can be a problem for women with poorly controlled diabetes, and they can make delivery more difficult
What does good control of your diabetes mean? Aim to have a blood sugar level before a meal of 4-6 mmol/l and of up to 7 mmol/l, 2 hours after a meal.

Adjusting insulin

Your body goes through major physical changes during pregnancy. Your hormone levels change dramatically. Changing hormone levels and your growing baby will have an effect on your insulin needs throughout pregnancy. To achieve the best possible blood sugar control, you will need to adjust your insulin dose frequently, with the advice of your diabetes care team.

More frequent visits to the antenatal clinic will help with your goal of maintaining a near normal blood sugar level. It will make it possible to quickly discover any problems you or your growing baby may have. That’s why it’s so important for your midwife or doctor to monitor you and your baby closely.

Delivery close to due date

Some centres prefer to deliver babies of women with diabetes several weeks before their due date. This is because babies born to women with a higher than normal blood sugar tend to grow larger than normal. However, thanks to better overall control of blood sugar in mothers with diabetes, babies are less likely to grow too large these days.

After delivery

Excellent blood sugar control remains important after your baby is born. Your need for insulin will drop immediately after giving birth. Blood sugar swings are common during this period. They can be caused by changes in your hormones, irregular sleep patterns and breast feeding. You should continue to test your blood sugar frequently and to take precautions against hypoglycaemia.

It can be done!

Remember, the success of your pregnancy depends to a great extent on you. It will involve time and effort on your part, but you won’t be doing it all on your own. Your diabetes care team, and those people who are close to you, will do everything they can to make your pregnancy a safe and special time. Once you have that happy, healthy baby in your arms, you'll know that the effort to control your diabetes during pregnancy was well worth it.

Diabetes and pregnancy: A summary

A healthy pregnancy is perfectly possible for women with diabetes
It takes careful planning from 3-6 months before you start trying for a baby
Careful consultation and monitoring from your diabetes care team will be needed
Excellent blood sugar control should be kept up through the pregnancy
Frequent insulin dose adjustments may be needed during the pregnancy and after the delivery
It will take considerable effort but the reward is likely to be a healthy, normal baby.

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Last updated: August 2009