| There is kind of Type II diabetes that you can get when you're pregnant called gestational diabetes. I had it with my first pregnancy. Certain groups of people are more prone to it, but you can also get it out of nowhere.
Risk factors are:
- diabetes in the family
- being overweight
- being from particular areas of the world, generally the Mediterranean
When you're pregnant the hormones your body produces inhibits the effectiveness of your insulin. It does this to make sure there's enough sugar in your blood to keep the baby nourished. With gestational diabetes, the hormones get it a bit out of whack and the insulin gets blocked too far so there's too much sugar. Hence the diabetes. When the baby is born the pregnancy hormones go away and your insulin works fine again.
They generally test for gestational diabetes around 26 weeks. If a screening test brings back a positive result you'll have a second, more detailed test. Testing before the 26 week mark won't necessarily show anything.
The reason they screen for diabetes is for your baby. If your baby gets too much blood sugar throughout the pregnancy he/she can grow too big and have difficulty being born. Also, if your baby is used to very high blood sugars in the womb, when he/she comes out and is separated from you and the sugar they can become severely hypoglycaemic, which is dangerous.
If you get gestational diabetes it's annoying but not impossible to manage. Firstly they'll have you go on a low GI (glycaemic index) diet and check your blood sugars a few times a day. Basically this means reducing starchy carbohydrate foods. You'll also find going for a walk after meals helps with your blood sugars.
if you can't manage the sugar levels with diet and exercise alone you may have to take insulin shots. I didn't have to, but my sister did. Both our babies were born perfectly healthy - mine's 4 years old now!
They'll consider inducing you for labour earlier if they think the baby is still growing too big - but that won't definitely happen. They'll also monitor the baby a bit more closely during labour just to make sure he/she is going OK.
If you've got any more questions feel free to contact me via here. I was pretty freaked out when they told me I had it, but it really did work out fine.  |