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Hypos and pregnancy

B

Bunnyinlove

Member
Messages
20
Type of diabetes
Other
Treatment type
Other
Hello,

I'm 30 weeks pregnant and was diagnosed with GD (or possibly undiagnosed type 2?) at 16 weeks. Been on insulin since then, and since I'm having to constantly increase the doses I've been having very frequent hypos especially at night (anywhere from 2.4 to 3.5) for about 2-3 months now. Sometimes I'm not even aware of them much. Today I had an appointment with my diabetic team, who told me hypos are dangerous to the baby in that they reduce the oxygen supply and can affect brain development. Apart from being furious that I haven't been told about it from the start (they only ever said the highs are bad) I'm now panicking I've harmed my baby. Anyone has got any experience or opinions on this? Feeling really bad...

Thanks in advance!
 
I think you'd struggle to find someone on insulin who DIDNT have hypos in pregnancy, @Bunnyinlove !Don't worry - we've all had them.

Tight control is really important and with that can come hypos. You would usually get more hypos in early pregnancy as later on In pregnancy you become more resistant to insulin so tend to go high rather than low.

Have you spoken to your team about adjusting the insulin to try to reduce the hypos? Do you have them at similar times in the nights? You could set an alarm to get up in the night and test. That way you could try to pre-empt any hypos. Keep some Lucozade by your bed, if you don't already. It works really quickly.

You said you sometimes don't notice your hypos. That could mean you're developing hypo unawareness. So I would do extra tests so that you can catch any lows even if you don't feel them.

I don't think your team shoukd have frightened you like that. Pregnancy with diabetes us stressful enough!

I had numerous hypos and my little boy is fine :)

Just be careful, test lots and lots, and speak to your team about your insulin regime if it's making you prone to hypos. A change might help, or maybe snacks at particular times, etc.
 
Hypos are bad same as high readings but with diabetes you can't escape neither. Checking frequently will help to manage better. I had lots of hypos and even fits (when my partner had to put honey in my mouth to make me conscious again). I then started to check my sugars 2 -3 times at night and it helped to avoid hypos. My baby girl is perfectly fine. :)
Good luck for remaining weeks and remember that staying positive is the key! :)
 
Brilliant advice you have been given above . Hypos are more common during the early stages of pregnancy , but I also had them throughout , I'm not telling you this to scare you in anyway but to just keep and eye and inform your diabetes team whenever you need to . I started experiencing hypos towards the end of my pregnancy , had to go and be monitored and with the hypos I was experiencing and with what baby was doing on monitor he had to come out the day after at 35+6 .
Hypos happen to all of us I felt I was always in hypo it wasn't just the odd few , in no way am I saying this is the case for you , just be aware of your hypos and let your team know .
I now have a healthy amazing little baby boy of 21 weeks . Best of luck to you and baby. :)
 
Thank you all so very much for taking time to reply.

Azure, yes I have spoken to my team and they said to reduce my night time insulin, which I did twice now, and still my sugar dropped to 2.3 last night which is the lowest I've been. Yes it does happen more or less at the same time and I do put an alarm but last night I woke up about 20 mins before the alarm feeling very unwell. So I will reduce it even more tonight and see what happens. Glad your little boy is fine!

Yuste, sorry to hear you even had fits, that's scary! Glad to hear your baby girl is well. Why are hypos as bad as hypers? Is it true they cut off the oxygen then? Is there any cut off point when they become bad?

Cloe, I've also been having them throughout. Glad your baby is well, and thank you for your wishes.
 
It sounds like you're doing everything you can to sort things :) Maybe set your night alarm half an hour earlier? I had to change the time of my night alarm during pregnancy in response to changing patterns. You could also try a small snack in the night to try to ward the hypo off.

It's a difficult balance between not going too high and not going too low. It's hard work.

I've read conflicting info about hypos in pregnancy. I don't know if they've been proven to affect the baby. That would be a question for your consultant. My consultant wasn't worried about my hypos in relation to the baby, but obviously there's a risk of falling of you go really low, or losing consciousness. I don't imagine there's been any tests on pregnant diabetics as that would be unethical. My advice is to reduce them as much as you can, but understand you probably can't have a perfect sugar all the time.

Cloe has made a good point about hypos later in pregnancy. Your consultant should mention that later. If you're able to get your levels smoother, then anything 'out of the ordinary' will be easier to spot.

Good luck - and just keep striving towards those optimum levels as well as looking after yourself :) You're doing well :)
 
Thank you so much for the advises Azure. Unfortunately I'm still finding it hard to calm down, even though now my doses have been adjusted and seems like it works well now. Placenta has been checked and it's fine, so just doses were too high. The fact that I've been having nearly constant nighttime hypos for more than a month terrifies me to death and keep thinking I've harmed my baby. Do you know of anyone who had multiple hypos in the last trimester and had a healthy child? I've never felt worse fear in my life...
 
@Bunnyinlove In my pregnancy before last, I was afraid that hypos would hurt my baby. I asked my consultant and she said they wouldn't and that the major risk was to the mum. Obviously if a women had a hypo and fell down thevstarirs, that'd be a risk to the baby too. But, in general, highs are far more dangerous.

I don't know if it'll help you, but take a look at this article, which mentions hypos:

https://www.bd.com/us/diabetes/page.aspx?cat=7001&id=7311

"If you are trying to keep your blood glucose in tight control, you may sometimes have hypoglycemia. Although low blood glucose does not harm your developing baby, repeated hypoglycemia episodes might create health problems for you."


I've never read about hypos depriving the baby of oxygen. Pregnant women do have hypos. I went as low as 1.2 in my pregnancy. I was terrified it'd make the baby ill, but he was fine. I know you'll still worry, but you've done everything right. I don't see any reason why you'd have damaged your baby at all. Poor diet, excessive exercise (which can, incidentally, affect the baby's oxygen), smoking, alcohol - they're all things that I think are far, far worse.

Try to relax and enjoy the last few weeks of pregnancy. You have done so much for your baby and I'm sure they're fine. I don't say that as a throwaway line - I mean it.

I think a part of your anxiety stems from how long you've waited and that creeping fear inside. I had that. My last pregnancy was in IVF one and I was very afraid. i know nothing will take away that fear, so see the 'staying calm' as a way of caring for your baby. I did deep breathing a number of times each day, and it helped me as much as my baby.

I honestly think it's all ok {{{hugs}}}
 
Azure, thank you for your reply and for being so kind and understanding. Sorry to hear you've been struggling with hypos and anxiety during your pregnancy too.

I'll try and do my best to calm down. Thanks for the link - in fact I did come across this article while googling hypos in pregnancy. While this one says they aren't harmless, there are other that say they are... So much conflicting info online and even among the doctors that I really don't know who to believe. I suppose the best thing is just do whatever it takes to keep bs in the normal range and accept that it's impossible to keep them there 100% of the time. They did reduce my nighttime insulin and last night was the only night I didn't have a hypo (woke up 5 times to test!) but ended up with high one in the morning. I really struggle to understand how this is going to work with me at all...

Thank you again for your kind words. Mean a lot to me!
 
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