Low blood sugar in pregnancy

Hormones!!! They seem to have a hand in everything, especially when pregnant. Are you eating differently or do you still have morning sickness or anything like that?

Remember your body is working really hard in the early stages of pregnancy developing the foetus so this may be using up more glucose. It is as your pregnancy continues into the 2nd and 3rd trimester that your insulin needs will increase dramatically, again caused by your hormones. Are you attending a diabetic ante natal regularly - they should be able to advise you what you need to do. It's not as easy as just reducing your insulin when pregnant as you don't want to raise your bg by too much. Being low is better for baby, although it's pretty miserable for you. Watch out for loss of hypo warnings as this is common in pregnancy (I myself passed out while pregnant while I was also looking after my then 2 year old son).

Good luck!

Jessie,

I was the same.. with the low readings, and the "tuts"! Just watch out for your hypo awareness. I lost mine during the 1st, 2nd trimester. I think that I feel the BG drop, rather than the actual low BG. So, if you are sitting at 4, you don't have far to drop!

It didn't stop me keeping my BG low low. Sure, if I could have kept it at 5, i would, but alas, I struggled to get things that precise, especially when pregnant.

All the best.

Oooooh good luck with your pregnancy!!!! I have type 1 diabetes and had my first child 3 years ago and my 2nd 6 months ago, during each pregnancy my diabetes completely changed... 1st i had excellent control then all of a sudden i had such a serious nocturnal hypo which required an ambulance call out (my husband is a superstar and is brilliant at helping with my hypos as i am hypo unaware)... all through 1st pregnancy i was constantly bombarded with hypos regardless of what i was doing during the 1st trimester however halfway through 2nd and 3rd it settled down... 2nd pregnancy again i was bombarded throughout 1st and 2nd trimesters this time however for the first time in over 10 years i was hypo aware (soon stopped after having baby )
i think everyone is different however the lows are primarily hormones and hopefully settles down especially as you should have lots of appointments which should support you. being type 1 and pregnant is hard work however the end results are more than worth it

Hi jessie,

congrats!!!!

When i had my two children ( 5 and 3) I had low sugars and lots of tuts during 1st trimester but as pregnancy went on it did settle down. My hba1c was 5.5% all the way through first pregnancy, with second pregnancy it was 6.5%. My insulin doses didn't really go up a lot. By the end of the pregnancy i was only on 20 units more then before i got pregnant.

With my second one in the 3rd month i had a severe hypo in the night which left me unconcious but paramedics brought me round with a hypokit (injection of glucagon) and 2 days later had to see ante natal/diab consultant and had severe hypo in her room. So had to start goin every week for checks but after 2 months they put me back on fornightly checks.

You have to remember that you are sustaining two people with your insulin and food. The baby is using some of ur energy so u can run out which will induce a hypo. (Hope it makes sense but i think its about the biology between you and your growing baby).

Hope everything goes ok

Josie

Hi Jessie,

There will always be room for improvement so don't take the criticism to heart. Yes, I had a scan which specifically looked at the baby's heart - it's because there is a higher chance for an abnormality in the heart of a 'diabetic baby'. Having said that, both of mine didn't have any heart defects and didn't need any time in scbu after they were born.

I know it's really difficult - I can remember it was all I thought about when I was pregnant - but please try to keep everything in perspective. It sounds like you have really good control, and whilst nothing can be guaranteed, you're giving your baby the best possible start.

Please keep us updated!

Hi Jessie,

Good to hear that things are going well. 20 weeks already..wow!

yes, I had the 27 week "heart scan" in both pregnancies, it was very odd, but lovely at the same time, eatching all that blood rushing around my children hearts. (It made me cry...I blame the hormones!).

Hi jessie,

Its great that things are going well for you.....

Yes I had the heart scan and growth scans, which measures how the baby is growing and shows up any early problems. When i had my children there were no problems and they didn't spend anytime in special care. I had both of them early for non-diabetic reasons. A friend of mine who is diabetic went fullterm with her child and was in labour for 1, yes 1, hour!!!!

Keep updates coming.....keep doing what you are seems to be working for you xxxxx

Josie

jessie said:

1 hour... I'm requesting that on my birth plan!!

Blood sugar is still good, stopped stressing about after meal 'highs' of 7s and 8s and things seem much easier - with less hypos too.

Had the scan yesterday which again went well, it was interesting to see baby's heart in so much detail and the sonographer was lovely, explaining what we were looking at. So feeling quite relaxed, for now

Jessie. x

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Hi Jessie glad things are going ok, I think there is so much emphasis on getting the post meal readings low(I was told 7 not 7.8 as my consultant extra strict - this was told to all pregnant diabetics not just me!) that it becomes really hard to avoid hypos. I was going hypo several times a day towards the end like you thought it was only the highs that affected baby so interested that you were told lows can affect baby too (although having said that my little one is fine now and seems to be developing ok! ) I think a lot is down to luck and there is a lot the medics don't know. I know it's scary but you have to just do your best and hope all will be well. Easier said than done though? How is your hypo awareness, be careful of that, due to having so many hypos mine went right down so I did not feel hypo until the low 2s (not good if still driving)
Anyway sounds like you are coping well atm. I found my blood sugar tended to go lower than normal up to about 20 weeks when the insulin resistance began and then until the end I needed more and more insulin, but the more I injected the higher the chance of miscalculating the dose so the greater the chance of a hypo.
As someone else said though everyonen is different

I too struggling with lows I am 18 weeks today. I had high highs in first trimester and complete loss of GUI awareness when I was low. The loss of hypo awareness continued into the second trimester but now suddenly this week I have hypo awareness again. Has this happened to anyone else?

I had loss of hypo awareness in first tri, this was prob caused by me being paranoid about highs affecting baby so I overcompensated and went too low, I changed doctors to one who is very anti hypo, and ran a little higher this made it come back so I now usually feel hypos around 3.5 unless I am asleep when I hypo in which case it can be around 2.5.

I don't tell my doctor though as he makes such a fuss about it and I've only a little while longer to go now. I do tell him I've hypo'd but just not how low. He seems to think that the worst thing in the world is to have a bad hypo, whereas when pregnant I think the highs are much worse. You can get used to running low so a hypo at 2.5 isn't as disabling as it would be to someone who isn't running so low all the time. Not saying they're great but I'd rather run too low than too high when pregnant, personally.

Guys this is a rather scary subject. When I got pregnant my doc told me not a single hypo.. But I obviously had some in my initial months.. The nutritionist also told me hypo cuts off oxygen to the baby. I hope everything goes fine.. Praying each day!


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Low blood sugar is dangerous, but I don't consider 63 mg/dL all that low. While 70-99 mg/dL is considered "normal," in reality many non-diabetics go into the 60s all the time without any hypoglycemic symptoms.

Because you're pregnant and perhaps tend to run low blood sugar-wise, just make sure to 1) eat every few hours and stick to foods lower in carbohydrates and 2) keep candy or juice on hand in case you start to feel yourself slipping into hypoglycemia.

It's *possible* that you are diabetic and that you have reactive hypoglycemia (blood sugar spikes after meals, pancreas overcompensates for spike by releasing too much insulin, resulting in hypoglycemia). You should ask for an HbA1c test and maybe even a Glucose Tolerance Test to see if you are.