Do any of you Mums have type 1 diabetes like me?

[widgetsmum]

Hi,
I'm 29 weeks pregnant (first time mum) and have had type 1 diabetes for 20 years. Everything is going fine so far and my blood glucose levels are better than they've ever been. I'm just wondering if there's anyone else out there who is/has been pregnant with type 1 diabetes?

I'd really like to know about people's experiences of pregnancy and especially birth. Has any mum with Type 1 diabetes had a vaginal delivery?

Looking forward to hearing from you!

[mbrbbt]

Hi and congratulations on your pregnancy. I have type 1 diabetes and am presently expecting our 5th child. I have had diabetes for 26 years this year with no other family history of it. All of my deliveries so far have been vaginal.

My sugars are shocking, my body hates being pregnant. Just came back from the endo today who now wants me to have up to 7 injections a day. It's all worth it in the end though.

Each of my children were induced early between 35 - 37 weeks due to high blood pressure at the end and spent a couple of days in special care but none have any signs of diabetes thank goodness - I've been told it is passed on genetically more from the fathers side.

Our last little one is giving us some trouble - was told today could be as close as 3 weeks away which will only make him 30 weeks as I am carrying way too much fluid which can be a complication of diabetic pregnancy though I never had it with any of the others.

You'll find that you probably won't need much insulin for a few weeks after having your baby and that feels fantastic. I also found that breastfeeding was great for the sugars as the baby takes everything (watch out for heaps of hypos - good excuse to indulge in chocolate though)

Hope everything goes well for you, if you want to ask any questions please do not hesitate to contact me, it can be so daunting.

[widgetsmum]

Hi Margaret,
Sorry to take so long to reply to your response which I read eagerly. Judging by what you were saying in your last message, a lot may have happened since your last posting! I'll understand if you don't reply straight away.

Are you and baby well? I hope so.

I am on maternity leave, now 34 weeks. Everything is going really well - BSL's are pretty good and baby's growth and heart rate are fine. I have regular hypos, usually before meals, but they're easy to treat and hard to avoid! I have been increasing the relevant insulin dose every time I get a BSL of +8 for two days in a row, and I take extra Humalog whenever they are over 8 which means I lose track of how many injections I have a day - 7 sounds about right for some days. I can see where a pump would make management more convenient during pregnancy.

I've started seeing my obstetrician weekly and having weekly CTG monitoring at the hospital. He'll be referring me to a Geelong endo for the birth, my endo is Melbourne based and won't be available.

I'm pretty curious about how diabetes affects the actual birth. I know that I'll be on an infusion of insulin and glucose as part of it, and that they will be trying to keep my sugars in the normal range so that baby doesn't hypo once born, but I'm wondering -

How often did they check your sugars while you were in labour?
What involvement did the endo have?
Did your babies have low BSL's after they were born?
How did their time in special care affect the time you were able to spend with them while you were in hospital?
Did it take long to stablise your BSLs after the birth?
Did you have many problems with hypos while breastfeeding? Any tips for managing?

Thanks for replying to me Margaret, I do hope that everything is going okay with you and bubs.
Best wishes,
Robyn

[wantagirl]

Hi, I am new to the trying to concieve forum, I am not pregnant yet though. Any way I was reading your post. My friend has Type 1 diabetes and has since about 8 years old. Her and her husband have tried to concieve for about 10 years now. I was wondering if the diabetes can cause her infertility. Her Dr. tells her that it has nothing to do with it. I just feel she needs a second opinion. Any way any advice for her would be great as she wants a baby very badly.

[widgetsmum]

Hi there,
I'm a little hesitant to say much as I'm not a doctor and only have part of your friend's story, but I can tell you about my understanding of the situation.

Type 1 diabetes alone will not prevent you from concieving even if you have terrible control of your BSL's. However your BSL's 3 months before and once you are pregnant will have an impact the viability of the pregnancy. People can spontaneously miscarry, or the baby's organs may not develop fully, baby can be big or small and can come early.

I'm sure your friend will have been told that she needs to keep her BSL's as close to normal as possible to give her the best chance of a healthy pregnancy, and I would imagine she is doing her best with this.

There could be many reasons why your friend is having trouble concieving but diabetes alone wouldn't stop her from becoming pregnant. There are lots of diabetic women having successful pregnancies and healthy babies these days as the medical profession learns more about how to better manage diabetes.

If your friend has had diabetes for a long time she may have begun to develop longer term complications (damage to eyesight, kidney function and nerve function) but even these I don't think would necessarily affect fertility.

I would expect that her GP would have referred her and her husband to fertility specialists, so she should be getting opinions from them. I'd imagine that a condition of her undergoing fertility treatment would be that she try to have her diabetes under control and to be as fit and healthy as she can be to give any pregnancy the best chance of success. Ideally she would have a few professional people to consult about her health overall and these would include a GP, Endocrinologist (for diabetes), and a fertility specialist. Between these three she should be getting a good range of opinions.

I hope that helps! In the meantime I'm sure she would appreciate your support and efforts to understand the difficulties she is facing.
Best wishes,
Robyn

[mbrbbt]

Hi, finally getting back to you - hope all is going well.

Yes, we've had lots of developments our end - our beautiful baby boy Sean was delivered by code red emergency c-section on the 25/7/06 at only 31 weeks. He hadn't been moving much for 2 days so when I went for my gyno's appt as soon as she looked at me she admitted me yet again but transferred me by ambulance (sirens and all) to a higher grade hospital. I went into labour which affected his heartrate badly and caused him to flatline. They stopped labour but next morning decided it was too risky to leave him any longer. As I'd been put into hospital and bedrest and given doses of steriods he was born at 4 pounds (good size for 31 1/2 weeks). He spent 1 day on c-pap (resucitation for breathing) and then a week in a humidicrib at Liverpool NICU. Had lots of low blood sugars but holding his own now. I am expressing milk constantly and he is fed this via a tube down his nose and I am now able to breastfeed him 1 - 2 times a day (anymore uses too much energy and makes him lose weight) He has now been transferred to our local hospital special care nursery and I just can't wait to get him home, he still has heartrate and respiration monitors on him but he's in a normal hospital crib and we can at least pick him up to cuddle him and bath him (At Liverpool NICU we were only allowed to hold him for 15min each day which was really hard. He now weighs about 1900 grams.

With my other children they were put into special care nursery to be monitored after birth for breathing and for low blood sugars. These were tested 2-3 hourly via a heel ***** blood test. All were different, some were tube fed straight away to keep sugars up, 1 breastfed really well and that was all she needed, 1 needed a dextrose (sugar) drip.

During labours I had an insulin and glucose infusion drip - my sugars weren't tested at all as the drip was running constantly and for the next 24 hours so I didn't have to worry about injections, meals or hypos.

If you're planning to breastfeed you are constantly hungry so a good supply of food and plenty of yummy lollies for the times you go hypo. Apparently I've been told that expressing a bottle of breastmilk (about 150ml) is equivalent to burning 500 calories so you can imagine feeding constantly uses lots of energy.

Hope I've answered most of your questions, feel free at any time to message or pm me if I can help with anything. Good luck with everything - my thoughts are with you.