Type 1's and Pregnancy

Happyyo

Member
Messages
6
Are there any type 1 women out there who have had babies or miscarridges? I would be very interested to hear how it all went and exchange advice/information/ personnal experiences about this. Don't know anyone else who has. Lots of information for gestational diabetics but not type 1's. Anyone out there?
 

jessie

Well-Known Member
Messages
275
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi Happyyo!

I've only just seen your post or I would have responded earlier. I am also trying to pick up tips on this subject... I had a miscarriage in November and my partner and I are 'preparing' to try again. If you'd like to PM me please do and we may be able to give each other some advice!

Jessie. x
 

Celtic.Piskie

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288
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Whole-wheat past and rice, tastes horrible. Cats, spiders, and people who think nick jonas is a musician.
I'm 26, have been diabetic since i was 9. My lil girl is nearly 3 now (gawd).
Perfectly 'normal' pregnancy, this time. I lost my first daughter when i was 20.

PM if you want some info, of personal experience :)
 

sugar2

Well-Known Member
Messages
833
Been diabetic since i WAS 4...now late 30s. I have 2 children, whom I adore, but run me ragged...they are 2 and 4! I had quite different pregnancies with each child. It is hard work, but so worth it. I had pre eclamsia like symptoms teh first time, but 2nd time around I was fine. It is hard work to stay in control...and I lost my hypo awareness for a while which was very scary!

Please pm me if I can help.

Try also Anticarb...as she is expecting at the moment...unless I miseed her birth announcement that is!
 

jessie

Well-Known Member
Messages
275
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hello,

Did you guys find it difficult to control your blood sugar, with your requirements changing all the time? I had to more or less double my insulin at about week 5 or 6 when I was pregnant. I'm normally in a bit of a routine with my food and it really threw me. I know blood sugar spikes can be dangerous when pg, what is the best way to avoid this? I low carb at the moment.

Thanks :)
 

Celtic.Piskie

Well-Known Member
Messages
288
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Whole-wheat past and rice, tastes horrible. Cats, spiders, and people who think nick jonas is a musician.
I had some bad nausea, so i didn't no-carb, i just ate whatever i could lol.

There's no way to really prevent spikes, you just have to get them down when you can. Stress is more dangerous, so do what you can, and relax.
You WILL have highs and low's, that's unavoidable with all the hormonal / nausea / stress flowing around, it all affects BS in different ways.

Test, test, and more testing was the only way i did it, and relaxing, and eat what you can, when you can. Ginger biccies are great for morning sickness, biccies in bed.
 

jessie

Well-Known Member
Messages
275
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Thanks Celtic Piskie, I really want to try and enjoy my next pregnancy if I can, and try not to give myself such a hard time with the highs and lows.

Quite liking the idea of biscuits in bed :)
 

sugar2

Well-Known Member
Messages
833
Hi Jessie,

In short,,, yes, I found it really difficult, with first 16 weeks or so being teh worst. Knowing what I know now..and wish I had known then...I would have pushed as hard as I could to get a pump, before getting pregnant! The only way I could deal with teh swings, caused by hormones in my blood sugar was to test, teat and adjust. I was absolutely terrified about going high...and so, spent quite a lot of time being low. A pump will not chnage the swings, it will mean you have to test as much, if not more, but it does meanthat you can do more about the highs and lows. My problem was that being pregnan seemed to magnify the problems I have with my diabetes at any other time. My blood sugar can drop very dat, if I so much as think about exercise...and I don't just mean a session at teh gym, no, even a walk to the station to attend my diabetes appointments would make me hypo.....but if I reduced my long acting insulin, I would then be too high for the rest ofthe time. A pump allows you to alter your insulin, for what you are about to do in the next hour or so.

I have to confess, I did not enjoy pregnancy, but I really enjoy being a Mum...and you do soon forget all the problems...if anything, it has left me in vetter control of my diabetes. :D
 

Happyyo

Member
Messages
6
Well I'm having a rubbish time diabetes wise; I have a child already (healthy and fine) and have since then lost two babies. It seems letting my blood sugers get too low/keeping them perfect so I am liable to hypo with the slightest physical exercion is causing me problems eg: foetal anomalies and miscarridges.

When I eat eveything in sight and let my sugers get quite high from time to time but never go too low (as I did with my 1st born and am doing now (i'm pregnant again and a scan has shown theres no anomalies), it seems to work.

I have had a lot of pressure from the medical establishment to try new insulins and keep my blood sugers too low (perfect/borderline hypo), but after two deaths I'm going on what I have worked out myself from experience and how I feel physically within myself.
,
 

jessie

Well-Known Member
Messages
275
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Sorry to hear about your losses Happyyo. It must be a scary and difficult time... can't go too high, can't go too low.. thing is we can only do our best, some things are out of our control. What sort of diet are you following now to keep your sugar levels how you want them?

Thanks Sugar for your comments, I have my 6 month check up next week so I may be brave enough to ask about a pump!

Happyo all the best with your pregnancy, and congratulations :)

Jessie. x
 

Happyyo

Member
Messages
6
I pretty much eat what I want; but no sugery drinks (all diet and no added sugar), no sweets unless i'm hypoing or having a very light meal and want a 'top up' to keep up my blood sugers, i'll have the ocassional bit of chocolate though. Mabe a sweet desset following a light or smaller portioned meal and plenty of snacks; eg; cheese, crackers, crisps and fruit and even a few biscuits.

This way seems to be serving me just fine although I'm aware of the long term effects (but theres always laser eye surgery and we can't all live until we are 100!).

I don't think a pump would suit me or help at all; I would love a pancreas transplant but I couldn't stand all the fuss and check ups since its in its early piloting stages and its not worth it for me considering the side effects of the drugs used to stop your body rejecting the transplant, suppressing an already not 100% immune system- maybe one day when the tech and drugs are more developed.

But if you get a pump please let me know how it goes......
 

the_anticarb

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Spiders, winter, bills, ignorance, prejudice
Hi, I'm 36 weeks pregnant although I'm not type 1 (I have a rare form of MODY which no one seems to really understand) I am more like a type 1 than a type 2 as I carb count and inject on a basal-bolus regime.

Luckily no probs with baby so far and fingers x'd for a successful birth, but I have found it a struggle to keep within the target blood glucose ranges, I feel like I can't do right for doing wrong, if I have enough insulin to prevent the post meal high then I go hypo if I knock off a couple of units to avoid the low then it goes too high.

But I have been told that it's the high that damages the foetus not the low so I have always erred on the too low side - concerned happyyo that you think differently, but then we are all different.

Being diabetic and pregnant has, unfortunately, caused me to develop a new resentment for my illness. I don't mind how many times I need to check myself or inject myself a day so long as my baby is ok, but it's the threat to my baby's health/life I find most difficult to accept. So far everything has been ok on the scans but I was not well controlled at conception, due to it being unplanned and keep thinking that I won't get away with it and that the baby will come out deformed or something (I know this is not rational - in my more rational moments I feel confident everything will be ok but I can't help worrying). I never knew until I fell pregnant just how much being diabetic can affect the development of the baby, I knew it was important to control it during the pregnancy but not how important the preconception bit is too. So I have spent most of this pregnancy on a knife edge, worrying before every scan, counting down to 12 weeks etc, that something will be wrong.

So I am really sorry to happyyo, and anyone else, who has lost a baby.

My approach to managing my diabetes is basically to eat a fairly normal diet, including some treats, but only if my blood sugar is at the right level and injecting to cover whatever I eat. This means that sometimes I have overinjected and end up chasing my tail eating more to avoid or deal with the hypo, but it has kept my hba1c in the 5.5-5.9 range which the docs seem to think is okay. I do feel like a test strip addict though as I can't go more than an hour without doing a test and then correct with either more food if too low or more insulin if too high - it is very hard to keep within the target ranges on an insulin regime, I find if I inject enough to prevent the high it makes me low and vice versa. Also towards the end of my pregnancy it is becoming very unpredictable exactly how much insulin I need, the other night I injected 6u with my evening meal and kept going low all evening, ate some snacks but still didn't need to have any more insulin, whereas last night I had about 18u with my main meal and I was high and injecting correction doses but had to inject about 10u more to get things back to normal -then I went too low. So how can I possibly control something which is so erratic? But only a couple more weeks to go now...

Happyyo if you are eating what you want are you injecting to cover it? If so I don't think that's a problem but I'd be wary of letting your sugars run too high...best of luck with your pregnancy

AC
 

jessie

Well-Known Member
Messages
275
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi AC,

I have read a few of your posts and (apart from you being pregnant!) our situations / diets etc seem quite similar.

I don't really know much about MODY - what are the main differences?

From what I've read, you are doing so well with your pregnancy but seem to be giving yourself quite a hard time. Saying this, I know when my time comes again I'll be exactly the same - I worry enough now and there's only me to think of! I'm sure every Mum to be worries like mad about all of the risks, it's completely natural.

I think I've said this before but you can only do your best and those unruly sugar levels are out of your control to a certain extent. I'm positive everything will be just fine for you and look forward to hearing your news. Can I ask if you will be induced early because of your diabetes?

Jessie. x
 

the_anticarb

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Hi Jessie - yes I am being induced in two weeks time at 38 weeks. Although there are some risks with induction I'd rather this than wait for the baby to come out naturally as I kind of want to know he's okay and everything. I think I am giving myself a hard time because I conceived with a highish Hba1c due to it being unplanned, and have never really forgiven myself for this, although I was unaware how much it could affect the baby until I fell pregnant. I was following a low carb approach then, so thought it was ok not to test very regularly - once a week if that - and then I read up far too much on the intranet in my early days and scared the living **** out of myself! But although the risks are higher, still the vast majority of diabetic ladies give birth to healthy babies. Also I am by nature a worrier and a bit of a pessimist which doesn't help in this situation!

Also i think the targets given by the doctors are quite unrealistic especially for those of us on insulin, maybe it's not so bad for people with gestational diabetes who are just using diet or metformin. Eg my doctor wants me not to go above 7.0 - ever! which means I'm constantly tempted to over inject my novorapid, which as we all know means hypos. It's just impossible to go low enough without going too low! I know they say all this becuase they want the best outcome for the mum and the baby but working to an unrealistic target just gets me frustrated and fed up with the whole thing. Then because the pregnancy hormones are fluctuating, this makes the ratios fluctuate sometimes on a daily basis, so I end up with no idea how much to inject and just guesstimate. What I do do, though, is test every 1-2 hours (this is more than you need to but I can't seem to stop testing!) and then I can get on top of any highs pretty quick. Also and I am probably not helping myself here, I can be quite an erratic eater and we all know that pregnancy can make a lot of ladies want to eat more than usual, particularly stodgy/carby foods, so I just inject more when I do this rather than cut out those foods, which works in a sense but can lead to insulin build-up = more hypos.

In answer to your question about MODY - well I was incorrectly diagnosed as type 1 for ages and it's only recently that MODY has become better known and I got correctly diagnosed. I always knew I was not type 2 or type 1 though as my diabetes came on slowly and I didn't need any insulin for the first 8 years, I used metformin and other tablets. Also despite quite prolific abuse of my illness in my teens and early twenties (due to diabulimia) I never got DKA or into any serious trouble even though at times I would miss my injections for up to a week at a time. The way I understand it, my body has the capability to produce insulin, and will produce some background (less and less as time goes on) , but the message to tell the pancreas to produce insulin, particularly in response to food intake, is switched off due to a defective gene. It's autosomal dominant, which means I had a 50-50 chance of inheriting it from my mother (which I did, one of my brothers did and one didn't) and, unfortunately, the baby will have a 50-50 chance of inheriting it from me. But it doesn't appear until adolescence so at least I won't have to worry about having a diabetic baby (can you imagine?)

Sounds like your pregnancy went ok- did you end up with an ok birth? Were you induced? I'm excited but nervous about the birth itself, although can't wait to meet the baby and get the diabetes back to normal, it really is ruling my life at the moment. Last night, after a bad hypo and then over treating to correct, I kept waking up to do more tests every hour and I think in the end my brain decided I needed to rest so I began to actually dream I was doing tests instead...how sad is that!!
 

jessie

Well-Known Member
Messages
275
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi AC,

Well I bet you can't wait to be induced, and you can finally relax and enjoy your new baby.

I did read about your over treating hypo experience, I do that all the time but am trying really hard not to. Your body just takes over in those situations and it's impossible to control!

I actually lost my baby at just 8 weeks in November last year, which is why I'm gathering all the info I can now. My last pregnancy was unplanned and I didn't have a clue what I was doing, so my partner and I want to 'do it properly' next time. I know it's going to be hard but I'll just do my best.

I've got so much great advice here as usual and don't know what I'd do without this site. Thanks very much!

Jessie. x
 

pinkemz

Member
Messages
13
Hi jessie, so sorry to hear you lost the baby last year must have been awful. How you getting on now. What was your hba1c when you lost the baby? is it better now. I am hoping to start trying this year but i am sooooo scared after reading all the stories on the internet.
Good luck to you this year x
 

jessie

Well-Known Member
Messages
275
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi Pinkemz, thanks for your message.

My HBA1C has always been around 5.6 so I put the miscarriage down to 'just one of those things'. Saying that, I wasn't prepared and when my blood sugar started to get out of control due to hormone changes, I was having lots of high readings which may not have helped. I'm obsessed with reading up on the internet and it can make you even more scared in a way but it is all information you need to know. All pregnancies have their risks, all Mums to be are different, just be prepared and do your best.

Best of luck to you too!!!

(Are you taking the 5mg folic acid?)

Jessie. x
 

pinkemz

Member
Messages
13
Hi Jessie,
yes i am taking the folic acid have been for a few months now. My HBA1c was 10.6 before christmas this week it was 8.5% so it is coming down not as fast as i hoped but hopefully it will soon. I am a lot more focused now after christmas. How are you?
 

jessie

Well-Known Member
Messages
275
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi Pinkemz,

Sounds like you're doing brillianty! 10.6 - 8.5 in a couple of months is great. How have you done it? Have you changed your diet etc? I'm trying to look after myself as best as possible, I've cut down on wine, am drinking de-caf coffee and eating less chocolate :( It will be worth it in the end! Trying to make myself do some exercise too as I want to be as healthy as possible.

Take care :)

Jessie. x
 

pinkemz

Member
Messages
13
no havent changed diet ao anything. Im just carb counting. I take 1 unit of my humalog for every 10g of carbs i eat. Im a lot stricter with christmas over only now taking it serious if im honest with you- stupis i know and i so regret it now. I am doing a little more excercise aswell in the week seems to help.