Concerns About Gestational Diabetes

I failed the 1-hour and the 3-hour...twice! Imagine that torture.

Remember that it could just be your hormones messing with the release/delivery of insulin and there might not be anything you can do about it. I know that when I failed my first 3-hour I immediately went on a diabetic-style diet. 4-6 weeks later (can't remember exactly when) I retook the 3-hour and got the exact same numbers. On the bright side, I delivered vaginally at 37w1d and my son was 7 pounds.

Don't worry about the ultrasound - if you are having issues with GD your doctor could be concerned about the size of the baby and may want to keep an eye on things. Unrelated, I had a cerclage at 13 weeks and had to go to the doctor every week and get an ulstrasound, and it was no big deal (my kid is now 2+ and fine).

A change in diet is always helpful; diabetic diets are actually very healthy for most people. Exercise will also help your body better manage labor and delivery. At the same time do not beat yourself up if the GD does progress, the baby does get bigger, and for the HEALTH and SAFETY of you and your baby you have to have a c-section - you probably won't know until you get very close to the due date as to whether this will be a possibility. Besides, no one gets a prize for 'doing it better' and delivering a certain way!

Try to stay calm and positive and don't blame yourself. It is highly likely that it is just the 'pregnancy' that brought this on, nothing that you did or didn't do. Good luck!

I had a c-section with the one pregnancy where I didn't have gestational diabetes. I also had GD with two pregnancies, and delivered fairly big babies vaginally, both over eight pounds. Watch your diet, you should be fine!

I was diagnosed with GD as well. I had to test four times a day and be on a strict diet, but after going through all of these instructions with the diabetes dr, he said that I shouldn't worry if the numbers didn't match what they had in the past. He said I could eat exactly the same things but because it was hormone related, my levels might be high or low, depending on the hormones at that time. So the entire thing made NO sense to me.
They also told me, at my last u/s, that my baby was 9 lbs already and they were thinking of inducing. Luckily, he arrived on his own early, so they never got the chance, but he was under 7 lbs at birth. So take it easy, eat well and exercise, but don't stress about it. They were wrong about the weight for most moms I talked to!!

There are some that don't believe there is such a thing as gestational diabetes --hard-core researchers, in fact. Some tease that it's a diagnosis looking for a disease. Also, so what if your baby is in the 90th percentile? The way those charts work, they ensure there is a 90th percentile! So what if you are one of the lucky ones to have a big baby. Back when my father was born, big babies were a sign of health (he was close to 11lbs). So don't worry about it. I failed the tests, worried myself sick, then dug through medical papers and found lots of information that led me to refuse to ever take those silly sugar tests again! It isn't natural or normal to digest that much sugar in such a sort time! I even fainted after the 3-hour test. BTW, the 1 hour glucose screen has a 50% false positive rate --the tests suck!

Furthermore, women use to have 10-11 lb babies all the time without needing c-sections, but this was back before the surgeons took over and decided to make everything based on convenience. You can easily have a vaginal delivery with a large baby, it all depends on the caregiver and what they think is 'normal.'

I had GD with my first preganancy. I suspect that they are Coverering all the bases Hence the extra US. I had to see a Nutrionist and take my blood sugar 4 times a day (yeah that sucked). My little one was 8 lbs 12 oz & 21 1/4 long. He was my first and I did have a C-sect. But I am also 5-1, and he was 1/3 of me and I did not dialiate enough.

I know people who have delivered 12 lbs babies normally. So I would not worry. Since you had 2 normal deliveries, it should be fine. Your body already knows how to deliver since you have done this before.

Eat helthy and excersize (walk) a lot. Try not to stress. I had to control my carbs.

I know people who had big babies and were not diabetic. Somet times it is in Genes. Good luck