High hba1c and pregnant

[miss_mac]

Hi, im new here to this forum. I have had diabetes for 9 years.
I have just found out im pregnant (unplanned) and my hba1c test the other day was 8.4%.
My endocrinologist is not happy and has told me i need to get it down asap and has really scared me with telling me everything thay can go wrong. I have alwqys been aware anyway but now im so scared and its stressing me out. Especially when i cant get my sugar level below 7, two hours after eating. I'll be honest and admit im not the best at carb counting (seeing dietician tomorrow)
Im terrified im going to lose my baby or that something will go wrong.
has anyone else had high hba1c when pregnant? Thanks

 

[urbanracer]

High miis_mac and welcome to the forums.

Obviously I've never been pregnant but I can appreciate the added stress at this point in your life. Diabetes can feed off stress with some people so watch out for that.

Can you give the forum members some idea of what your normal daily food take is and maybe we can make some suggestions to help you.

Also have a good look through the information that @daisy1 gives to new members.

 

[Pinkorchid]

Hi and congratulations.
There are others who are pregnant on the forum so will be able to tell you how they cope with their BG levels and I am sure they will soon be along to give you some tips You may need a slightly different diet to those who are not pregnant

 

[miss_mac]

Thanks both for your reply.

I was on lantus and doc has just changed me to levemir. I also take novorapid.
Since i found out just over a week ago, ive tried to be really careful.
I always have cereal for breakfast and after each meal my sugar always seems to be around 8 or 9. Then today all i had for lunch was a sandwich and yet before dinner my sugar was 11 ! I seriously dont know what to do to get it down. I hate my endocrinologist i have only met him once and its as though he wanted to scare me and just felt like he was having a go at me.

 

[urbanracer]

Hi miss_mac

Many forum members steer well clear of cereals, citing the fact that they can cause large sugar spikes in some people. Do you have time to cook yourself an egg for breakfast in the morning?

If you've already had lunch then you're way ahead of my time zone (UK). Have you cut down on your carbohydrate intake at all? Swapped white bread for brown (or do you eat brown bread anyway)?

EDITED: I just found this info on the website so now I understand that you need to be a bit lower than would normally be accepted.

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/pregnancy/hba1c-and-pregnancy.html

 

[azure]

miss_mac, don't panic. Hopefully, you'll soon get those sugars down. My HbA1C was lower than yours when I got pregnant but I did have some scary highs. I gave birth to a healthy boy a couple of weeks ago.

I'm glad you're seeing a dietician. Are you also seeing a DSN to see if your insulin doses need adjusting? It may be you'll need to increase them a little if you're spiking too high after meals. During pregnancy your insulin needs will gradually rise, sometimes quite shockingly so. You have to keep your eye on them all the time and adjust whenever necessary. It's hard work - but very, very worth it, of course.

 

[miss_mac]

Thanks for your replies. Yes im in australia, lol. At the diabetes clinic, ive started seeing the endocrinologist and the diabetes educator.
once i see the dietician tomorrow im hoping to have a better understanding of what i should be eating.
ive just got it into my head that something will go wrong or ill be giving birth to a massive baby lol.

 

[urbanracer]

Thanks for your replies. Yes im in australia, lol. At the diabetes clinic, ive started seeing the endocrinologist and the diabetes educator.
once i see the dietician tomorrow im hoping to have a better understanding of what i should be eating.
ive just got it into my head that something will go wrong or ill be giving birth to a massive baby lol.

Ok good luck with your appointment, hope you get better advice than we normally do in the UK.

 

[azure]

Thanks for your replies. Yes im in australia, lol. At the diabetes clinic, ive started seeing the endocrinologist and the diabetes educator.
once i see the dietician tomorrow im hoping to have a better understanding of what i should be eating.
ive just got it into my head that something will go wrong or ill be giving birth to a massive baby lol.

Cool. The blood sugar targets you'll be given may vary between countries so I wouldn't want to just give you mine (I'm in the UK) but they are stricter than normal targets because, as I'm sure you know, control has to be tighter during pregnancy and closer to non-diabetic blood sugars.

I worried a lot during pregnancy, but I think most pregnant women worry, diabetic or not. Diabetes just adds another big dose of worry! I think some Drs do scare you a bit so you can understand how important good control is, but you sound like you know that anyway.

Good luck and keep posting. I found this forum fantastic for help and support.

 

[sleepyheadzzz]

My A1C was (I think) 7.6 when I found out I was pregnant, which was a bit higher than I had planned. I'm now 14 weeks and my last A1C (done April 20th) was 7%. You'll probably find it will gradually start to drop the further along you get and the more you check. That's really discouraging how your doctor treated you - at one of my first visits after I found out I was pregnant my doctor said to me "You know for non-diabetics the normal pregnancy numbers are 3.5-4.5?" I fax her my numbers bi-weekly and the next time I faxed them I added a note about how anxious and stressed I was and she was a lot softer when we had our next meeting.

I have issues with my after breakfast sugars spiking, so I do my insulin about 30-45 minutes before eating (but I have to be careful I'm not going low before I eat sometimes). At all other meals it's fine if I bolus right as I eat, but maybe you need to explore doing yours a bit earlier. I intended to cut down on carbs early on but my nausea was so bad I survived on chips, crackers, toast, and bagels for about 8 weeks.

I needed increased insulin until about week 7 or 8, and my numbers really swung all over the place - I had few patterns and my pump rates changed about every 2-3 days. It was really frustrating but did start to normalize after a bit.

I use the following graph to track my sugars/meals/etc. I can send along a PDF file via email with a copy of it if you're interested. I find I pay attention better when I chart it out by hand as opposed to using a computer program.

 

[miss_mac]

My A1C was (I think) 7.6 when I found out I was pregnant, which was a bit higher than I had planned. I'm now 14 weeks and my last A1C (done April 20th) was 7%. You'll probably find it will gradually start to drop the further along you get and the more you check. That's really discouraging how your doctor treated you - at one of my first visits after I found out I was pregnant my doctor said to me "You know for non-diabetics the normal pregnancy numbers are 3.5-4.5?" I fax her my numbers bi-weekly and the next time I faxed them I added a note about how anxious and stressed I was and she was a lot softer when we had our next meeting.

I have issues with my after breakfast sugars spiking, so I do my insulin about 30-45 minutes before eating (but I have to be careful I'm not going low before I eat sometimes). At all other meals it's fine if I bolus right as I eat, but maybe you need to explore doing yours a bit earlier. I intended to cut down on carbs early on but my nausea was so bad I survived on chips, crackers, toast, and bagels for about 8 weeks.

I needed increased insulin until about week 7 or 8, and my numbers really swung all over the place - I had few patterns and my pump rates changed about every 2-3 days. It was really frustrating but did start to normalize after a bit.

I use the following graph to track my sugars/meals/etc. I can send along a PDF file via email with a copy of it if you're interested. I find I pay attention better when I chart it out by hand as opposed to using a computer program.

Thanks so much.
i seen the dietician yesterday and am abit more familiar with counting carbs now. Shes given me a diary to write my bgl down.
Has anyone on this forum actually had complications with their pregnancy diabetes related?

 

[RPa]

Hi miss mac
Congratulations on your news. I've never been pregnant, however I used to have a high HBA1c.
Mine was 8.0 at the start of feb this year, 6 weeks later it was 6.8. I did this by cutting/lowering carbs. What I eat is:
Breakfast: strawberry,blackberry, almonds,plain yoghurt with sweetner and cinnamon. Sometimes I have 2 egg omelette.
Lunch: salad or veg and fish
Dinner: veg and meat/fish
Snacks: handful of nuts

Good luck and I hope this helps.

RPA

 

[azure]

Thanks so much.
i seen the dietician yesterday and am abit more familiar with counting carbs now. Shes given me a diary to write my bgl down.
Has anyone on this forum actually had complications with their pregnancy diabetes related?

No complications - it was an easy pregnancy. But at the end there was a possible concern about placental deterioration which meant being induced earlier than planned to be safe.

That's not uncommon ( although please don't think it's inevitable or will happen to you - just something to bear in mind)

 

[claire_786]

im going to be doing ivf soon and my hba1c was 9.2 and now 7.9 and ive had one nurse scaring me by taking about miscarriages and complications , but i think it was a good idea she did scare me cause now im more tighter control of my diabetes and need to get my hba1c down to 7% ...and now im watching what i eat and low carbs for lunch which is working for me

 

[Lolli24]

Mine was 8.4 at Conception! Managed to get it down to 6 and it stayed that way through my whole pregnancy. I did have a few issues (Polyhydramnios and hypos in third trimester) but I have a healthy baby girl now so that's all that matters. The advice I would give you is the sooner you get them controlled the better and people have had much higher hba1c and gone on to have healthy children. I found it so hard to control my sugars in pregnancy and had at least one high everyday but she's here now which makes it all worth the struggle. Congratulations and good luck xx

 

[Lolli24]

Thanks so much.
i seen the dietician yesterday and am abit more familiar with counting carbs now. Shes given me a diary to write my bgl down.
Has anyone on this forum actually had complications with their pregnancy diabetes related?

Yeah I had complains. I eneded up having an emergency c section at 36 weeks due to Polyhydramnios (extra fluid) which is diabetes related and I couldn't feel my hypos at all and kept having them which at the late stage I was meant I had possible placenta failure. It turned out I didn't actually have that but baby was in SCBU for 5 days due to needing help with her breathing and she also had an infection and jaundice. Apart from that she was fine she didn't have an problems relating to my diabetes it was just me that was struggling

 

[Madelinelowery]

Hi Hun, a massive congratulations ️

Honestly don't worry, when we first conceived out little man my Hab1c was 8.2% and our pregnancy wasn't planned!
But within a month I dropped it to 7%, then I kept dropping it from then! My hab1c is now 5.7% ️

And throughout my pregnancy Iv had highs and lows! It's never easy to get it constantly normal and no diabetic can! My little man is perfectly healthy with no complications so far, we've had a few trips to the hospital with reduced movement but that's him being lazy!!
I'm now 32 weeks and the past few weeks Iv been running high for no reason, it's just all the hormones! There's no limit on insulin so take as much as you need!

I was the worst diabetic before pregnancy, I never checked my levels or carb counted! I used to find using a 1 unit to 10g card ratio worked at the beginning! The further in pregnancy you get the more insulin you'll need!

Good luck, you'll be fine ️ xxx

 

[miss_mac]

Thank you all so much for your replies. Im not so panicky about it all now. I have my dating scan in 2 weeks. Can they see anything at this scan? As in if anything is wrong or would that be the 12 week one? Thanks again

 

[azure]

In the very early scans they just look for basic things like size, heartbeat, formation of the sac, etc. The scan to check that the baby is developing properly is the scan at approx 20 weeks - the anomaly scan. That one checks the heart, kidneys,stomach, etc and looks for abnormalities.

Try not to worry - easier said than done, I know! Look after yourself and keep on top of your blood sugars. Many, many women with diabetes have perfectly healthy babies, and the care we receive now is fantastic compared to what you read about decades ago. I know it's so easy to imagine bad things, but i promise you you'd be doing that whatever your HbA1C was. I did it all through my pregnancy. Part of being pregnant, I think!

 

[Nikkisandy]

My A1C was (I think) 7.6 when I found out I was pregnant, which was a bit higher than I had planned. I'm now 14 weeks and my last A1C (done April 20th) was 7%. You'll probably find it will gradually start to drop the further along you get and the more you check. That's really discouraging how your doctor treated you - at one of my first visits after I found out I was pregnant my doctor said to me "You know for non-diabetics the normal pregnancy numbers are 3.5-4.5?" I fax her my numbers bi-weekly and the next time I faxed them I added a note about how anxious and stressed I was and she was a lot softer when we had our next meeting.

I have issues with my after breakfast sugars spiking, so I do my insulin about 30-45 minutes before eating (but I have to be careful I'm not going low before I eat sometimes). At all other meals it's fine if I bolus right as I eat, but maybe you need to explore doing yours a bit earlier. I intended to cut down on carbs early on but my nausea was so bad I survived on chips, crackers, toast, and bagels for about 8 weeks.

I needed increased insulin until about week 7 or 8, and my numbers really swung all over the place - I had few patterns and my pump rates changed about every 2-3 days. It was really frustrating but did start to normalize after a bit.

I use the following graph to track my sugars/meals/etc. I can send along a PDF file via email with a copy of it if you're interested. I find I pay attention better when I chart it out by hand as opposed to using a computer program.

Hello, my HBa1c is 8 and I’m with 2 weeks pregnancy, I’m from India and doctors are telling tat on my risk thy are asking me to continue my pregnancy thy have not done any scans, is it ok and can this Hba1c can be reduced and if so how? Plz help me.