Experiences of type 1 in pregnancy

[BlueBerry11]

I am not really sure what I’m hoping to get out of posting, maybe some reassurance or experiences on type 1 and pregnancy/labour/babies as I’m looking to conceive and feeling pretty anxious about it all!

I was diagnosed with diabetes in my first pregnancy so don’t have any relevant experiences on managing diabetes in pregnancy. Diagnosis, labour and the time after was pretty traumatic in a lot of ways.

I’m on the wrong side of 30 now and my husband and I have always wanted a second baby but I haven’t felt ready due to coming to grips with managing diabetes. Ive started the omnipod 5 about a month ago and levels are starting to get better although I’m still a little way of where they want you to be for pregnancy. I’m feeling the clock tick though!

I’m very anxious about doing the baby damage, about complications in pregnancy for me or baby and about managing changing blood glucose levels (hypos and hypers).

Is there any advice/reassurance/tips that people could give? I’m already on the higher dose folic acid.

 

[EllieM]

HI @BlueBerry11 and wishing you luck for your pregnancy journey.

My advice is quite dated (my kids are 32 and 28 and my pregnancies were pre cgm and pre pumps).

However it sounds like you are doing all the right things to minimise the chance of complications. It seems to me that diabetic pregnancies are a bit of a numbers game. Poor control worsens the chances of complications, but enough people have complications/miscarriages etc that if the worst happens you'd never know whether it was caused by the diabetes or would just have happened anyway.

Anyway, female T1s have been having successful pregnancies for the last century, it's just that the outcomes are so much better now. (My T1 mum had 3 pre glucometer pregnancies in the late 1950s and early 60s, and the first resulted in a stillborn infant, quite likely because she got pregnant way too soon after a late T1 diagnosis via DKA. Her deliveries were all in a London teaching hospital, despite living in Hampshire.) My two babies were fine but I had a fairly grim time as without a cgm I had some serious hypos. Given access to a cgm I would probably have gone for a third pregnancy.

So you have a pump, a cgm and (presumably) good access to a diabetic team. I think you are in a good place for planning a pregnancy and I wish you every luck for it, though I hope and expect that you won't need any luck. Modern technology is on your side. And (my opinion only, I'm not a doctor) you don't have to have perfect bgs throughout pregnancy, just do the best you can.

 

[BlueBerry11]

Hi @EllieM, thank you so much for sharing your experience. It’s reassuring to hear

The hypos is something that worries me as I find them pretty scary still. Hoping a pump would help with them though.

You are obviously absolutely right that people with type 1 have had babies since before all the tech. I need to remind myself of that.

Thank you again!

 

[EllieM]

Hoping a pump would help with them though.

My pump is definitely helping me, and I've only been on it for 2 weeks.