Lisa's first pregnancy, with daughter Amy, now 10, gave her plenty of experience of pregnancy with diabetes. There were minor problems, but good planning helped Lisa get through it.
Before conception
When Lisa decided to try to get pregnant for the first time, she attended a special pre-conception clinic for diabetic women at the Royal Southampton Hospital.
These clinics give women with diabetes important advice on how to prepare for pregnancy. Lisa was referred there when she told her diabetes care team that she and her husband wanted to have a baby.
“They told me I should aim to get my blood sugar within a certain range, and they gave me dietary advice,” she says. “You attend a few times to check your general health and make sure your blood sugar is really stable. Only then do you start trying for a baby.
“The clinic recommended that I start testing my blood sugar more often, so I begun to do it four or five times a day,” says Lisa. “This helped me to get really close control of my levels.”
To help prevent birth abnormalities, Lisa’s clinic gave her folic acid tablets to start taking before conception.
But once Lisa became pregnant, she says, the first few months were stressful.
“I was always worrying about what I was eating and if it would make my blood sugar high,” she says. “I attended a special diabetes antenatal clinic, and had more health check-ups than women without diabetes.
“You feel as though you're being inspected in a factory. But you just have to accept that your pregnancy is different to other women's.”
Stable blood glucose
Lisa’s most important aim was keeping her blood glucose (sugar) levels near normal. But pregnancy made this trickier than usual, and she had problems with low glucose.
“My consultant told me that a low sugar level is quite normal early in pregnancy,” she says. “I had to constantly adjust my short-acting insulin regime.”
Lisa’s blood sugar became level for the middle months of the pregnancy, but rose too high towards the end.
“By the last three months the baby is almost fully grown, so I was eating more and this was making my blood sugar high. It was hard to know how much extra insulin to take. In the last two months I took twice the usual amount of short-acting insulin.”
Women with diabetes still have the usual troubles that pregnancy brings, such as morning sickness. "The smell of coffee really triggered mine," says Lisa.
"Overall, pregnancy with diabetes makes it difficult to do things spontaneously," she says. "Every part of your day has to be carefully planned."
The birth
Lisa's delivery was induced at 38 weeks, as is usual in women with diabetes. Even at the birth itself, managing her diabetes was key.
“During labour you have a dextrose drip running into one hand, and an insulin drip into the other,” says Lisa. “You can’t jump out of bed for a walk around the ward, like other women. It feels like a medical procedure.”
Baby Amy was born perfecty healthy in 1998.
“When you have diabetes, it can be hard to enjoy your pregnancy as other mums do,” says Lisa. “But it's manageable if you work at it. And it’s all worth it in the end. If your baby is healthy that’s all that matters.”
