Pregnancy and type 1

[Elc1112]

Evening all. I've been diabetic for over 20 years and am now getting close to 30. While I'm not wanting to have kids right now, it is something that I am thinking about for a couple of years time. I've got background retinopathy but have been complications free apart from that. My diabetes is reasonably well controlled now (last hba1c was 5.8) but my control was pretty terrible in my teens.

Anyway, I know that being pregnant as a type 1 poses some risks - both to mum and to baby. I'd really like to hear from anybody that has been through this. How was the pregnancy? What impact did it have on your diabetes? Etc. Also, anybodyrhat has been down alternative routes eg surrogacy, adoption.

It might seem a bit early to start worrying about these things, but I know that diabetes introduces a whole range of challenges to being pregnant and I want to make sure I am prepared and am in the best possible shape to do this.

Anyway, any experiences that you could share would be hugely appreciated.

Emma

 

[Delphinum]

Hi Emma,

I saw that no-one had responded to this so I thought I would, even though it's probably not the response you're looking for.

My pregnancy was absolutely amazing. Never had such good sugar levels and I felt better than I ever have. If I could be pregnant all the time, I would!

However, my daughter was diagnosed at 26 weeks gestation with hypoplastic left heart and when she was born was also found to have truncus arteriosus, aeortic septum defect, ventricular septum defect, Pierre Robin syndrome and a narrowed trachea. All linked to the same development point in the pregnancy. There was no reason for it, no genetics and nothing I could have done to prevent it. I was on Lantus (which is normal now but wasn't then) and not on higher dose folic acid because my doctor was negligent. I had no pre-pregnancy care because of him either despite him knowing we wanted to try.

Who knows if it was the diabetes to blame... and I hope that one day - it'll be 5 years in May since she was born and I'm 30 next month too (I was told by the DSN I had to have all my children by the age of 30, but is this outdated information?)- I might become a mother again so I hope there is some way that I can have a positive outcome. I often think that perhaps adopting would be easier and better for me long term, but my husband was always against it and now that we've split up, I can't see me getting accepted for it.

I'd urge you to go to the doctor and insist on higher dose folic acid as soon as you decide that you'd like to try. It's not going to hurt if you don't get pregnant and you should have it for 3 months previous to conception. My consultant has said if I want to get pregnant again, I should go for an HbA1c of 6.1 and blood sugars of 6.1 2 hours after eating. Very tight control and they're going to put me on a pump hopefully beforehand. As you've said your HbA1c is 5, that sounds excellent! Wish I could get that!

Anyway, don't want to put a downer on you by telling you what happened but that's my experience of it. If I could do it all again, I would have been harder with the medical 'professionals' and asked for the things I wanted instead of being afraid of conflict.

Take care,
Angela

 

[Elc1112]

Thanks Angela,

Any experiences are so welcome. I've heard stories about diabetics who have had really difficult pregnancies and others who have breezed through.

I'm sorry to hear about the problems your daughter had. That must have been really difficult for you. I hope that you can try again soon

I've never been told to have kids before the age of 30. I hope that's not true or I've left it too late! I tried speaking to me diabetes team about this last time I saw them. They said until I was actually ready to start trying then there was no point in having the conversation. Really frustrating! I'm going to see a private consultant in a couple of months just to talk things through.

As for the hba1c, mine is usually between 5.5 and 6.5. The last one was quite low for me. I still have the odd high or low but they are generally quite stable (apart from the last three weeks as I have been recovering from surgery and unable to do much!). Boring as this sounds, I tend to eat the same things over and over and have quite a strict exercise regime. It helps me know exactly how much insulin I need to cover each meal/exercise. I sound like a right control freak, don't I?! Lol.

Anyway, thank you again for sharing.

Take care, Emma xx