Unplanned Pregnancy and High HBA1C

Hello Sally, I was gestational with my daughter before I got my t1 diagnosis 11 years ago now. I was only diagnosed gestational at 23 weeks and hadn't been checked before this, at 23 weeks I was put straight into insulin which was a huge shock, and cannot remember how high my HbA1c was, but obviously high enough to warrant insulin. I too was worried about damage etc but fortunately my daughter was induced at 37 weeks and no problems.

NICE has guidelines for pregnancy, which are just that, please don't panic or worry as your DSN will help with your management, it's an opportunity to focus on your control now and between now and your appointment, keep a diary and record your carb intake, insulin taken and Bg results so you have a record to discuss when you meet, hormones will affect your control too hence why keeping close contact with your DSN to review is so important. Wishing you well and congratulations too

Same boat as you! I found out at 7 weeks that I was pregnant and my hba1c was 9.1! Anyway I'm now completely back on it and trying my best to get my sugars under control.

I saw my midwife Saturday for my booking in appointment and she did my bloods again which included hba1c and found out today it's already come down to 7.8!! That's in a matter of 3 weeks or so, I'm chuffed with this!

I'm sure that like me, knowing you have the responsibility of a baby now will give you the determination to get things on track

Congrats xx

Hi SallyRit,

Firstly, MASSIVE CONGRATULATIONS!!!! How exciting that you are going to have a baby

I am 13 weeks pregnant and type 1 on a pump.

I don't have a high hba1c for this pregnancy as on pump and libre. But for my first pregnancy (2years ago) it was higher than it should be at the beginning of pregnancy, I was on novorapid and levemir for that, my preconception nurse told me lantus was contraindicated in pregnancy so was switched to levemir?! I presume this is no longer the case as you are on lantus.

Have faith and positivity though hon, you can get it down. By the end of my first pregnancy my hba1c was 45, so it is possible. Just beware of having loads and loads of hypos to do that though, because it's not safe and probably not good for baby.

You may hypo lots in first trimester anyway and the added want to reduce hba1c can make this situation worse.

It is towards the end of the pregnancy that the tight control is especially important so you don't have a massive baby and need to be induced at 35 weeks (this is what they said to me anyway, I am by no means an expert can only repeat what I was told and give you my own experience)

I presume you are taking your folic acid?

Have they suggested a pump for you? Might be easier to get it down, they offered it to me in first pregnancy but I turned it down for some crazy reason. It's great that you have a libre, so helpful I find for sorting it all out.

Are you a self managing diabetic or do you rely on the DSN? I presume you have mobile number of your diabetic midwife? Get in touch every few days and send over your libre readings with doses and what you ate, they can adjust as you go. It will come down!! As I said, you can get the tight control in the third trimester which is when it is super important so you have a few months to get there and you will!!! As the previous person said, her hba1c came down a lot in a short space of time. In one month my hba1c went from 55 to 47. You can totally do it.

One last thing I will say, is I found my first pregnancy very medical and not very exciting because of all the consultant visits and diabetes talks, don't forget to embrace that little bean growing inside you because it is wonderful. Again, congratulations

Also remember that hba1c is over 3 months or so and you have only been preggers 3 weeks, so your control for the pregnancy may be great but not reflected in your hba1c. Good luck!

Ah bless you, you're not an emotional wreck YOU'RE PREGNANT

All sounds very positive and all the right steps are in place!

Ha ha, when my husband talks about his "super sperm" (only tried for one month second time round) I always say "how do you know its yours?" - just to keep him on his toes.

Hi, congrats.

I'm in a similar boat. Found out Monday 10th June I have diabetic but unsure which type so currently being treated as type 1. I also found out I was pregnant then too... Huge shock as was on birth control!

Now I'm a little stuck, doctors are worried about my levels and I'm worried about the life growing inside of me, they've not given me much hope to be honest and that makes me sad, I do have a little boy already and this one would just complete my little family.

My starting levels were 24mmol... I've managed to gwt them as low as 9.4mmol but they go Back to 14-18mmol...

Is there any hope of this baby being okay?

Kaykay90 said:

Hi, congrats.

I'm in a similar boat. Found out Monday 10th June I have diabetic but unsure which type so currently being treated as type 1. I also found out I was pregnant then too... Huge shock as was on birth control!

Now I'm a little stuck, doctors are worried about my levels and I'm worried about the life growing inside of me, they've not given me much hope to be honest and that makes me sad, I do have a little boy already and this one would just complete my little family.

My starting levels were 24mmol... I've managed to gwt them as low as 9.4mmol but they go Back to 14-18mmol...

Is there any hope of this baby being okay?

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Do you have any idea how far along you are?

I was in a similar situation, found out I was pregnant and hba1c was 9.4. They said that it would be a huge concern for the pregnancy if it was over 10 - do you know what your hba1c is?

Now you know, you can really concentrate on getting your sugars down. My hba1c has come down to 7 in about 6 weeks and have just had my 12 week scan and currently have a healthy little baby growing as it should.

I really wish you the best outcome xxx

Ellie_Wilko said:

Do you have any idea how far along you are?

I was in a similar situation, found out I was pregnant and hba1c was 9.4. They said that it would be a huge concern for the pregnancy if it was over 10 - do you know what your hba1c is?

Now you know, you can really concentrate on getting your sugars down. My hba1c has come down to 7 in about 6 weeks and have just had my 12 week scan and currently have a healthy little baby growing as it should.

I really wish you the best outcome xxx

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I'm 6 weeks today, my hba1c was 12% , Iive got it down to 9.2 but it just bounces.... I'm on novarapid and levimer... Hoping I can get it down!

Congrats to you lovely xxx

SallyRit said:

Are you on injections or the pump? And do you have the Libre? Even though we have to do blood tests, i still find the Libre really useful to see patterns and try and work out why bg is going up or down. Congratulations also by the way! x

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I'm on injections and nothing has been mentioned about a libre although I have an appointment tomorrow so will ask then xxx

How are you all getting on? Feeling better with the control?! Have you had your scan yet Sallyrit?

Hiya I hope you all are doing well I'm in pretty much the same situation. I am type 2 diabetic and recently found out I was pregnant at around 3 weeks. My hba1c was checked in May and was 87 so around 10% so very high. I am on tablets only.. atm 4 a day. I'm controlling it as much as I can but I think they will put me on insulin soon. I've cut out carbs as that's the only way I can keep my sugars close to the bench marks...but tbh even then they are slightly higher than they should be. They told me not to cut out csrbs but im too scared to eat crarbs now. My first pregnancy I had gestational diabetes but had a healthy boy. Unfortunately the diabetes didn't go. I'm so scared as before I knew I was pregnant I was eating like crazy and wasn't checking so I know the first 3 weeks of my pregnancy my sugars were sky high before I found out I was pregnant . I feel so guilty and scared now as everywhere I read that birth defect or damage occurs early on in first few weeks etc. And I just feel so down thinking have I already hurt my baby by being careless. Sorry feeling very emotional. I feel so unhappy in this pregnancy because I'm so scared to eat and all I think about is that I have caused problems already. I have wrote in so many forums to find out if there are people out there that have had healthy babies in similar situation but never get a reply. I will obviously do whatever I can now to keep sugars down. Sorry for the long essay but i am glad to have found this thread. Any advice would be really appreciated. Best of luck to u all x

Just a prompt but all pregnant Type 1s should now have access to the Libre. It is in the guidelines.

Alia5 said:

Hiya I hope you all are doing well I'm in pretty much the same situation. I am type 2 diabetic and recently found out I was pregnant at around 3 weeks. My hba1c was checked in May and was 87 so around 10% so very high. I am on tablets only.. atm 4 a day. I'm controlling it as much as I can but I think they will put me on insulin soon. I've cut out carbs as that's the only way I can keep my sugars close to the bench marks...but tbh even then they are slightly higher than they should be. They told me not to cut out csrbs but im too scared to eat crarbs now. My first pregnancy I had gestational diabetes but had a healthy boy. Unfortunately the diabetes didn't go. I'm so scared as before I knew I was pregnant I was eating like crazy and wasn't checking so I know the first 3 weeks of my pregnancy my sugars were sky high before I found out I was pregnant . I feel so guilty and scared now as everywhere I read that birth defect or damage occurs early on in first few weeks etc. And I just feel so down thinking have I already hurt my baby by being careless. Sorry feeling very emotional. I feel so unhappy in this pregnancy because I'm so scared to eat and all I think about is that I have caused problems already. I have wrote in so many forums to find out if there are people out there that have had healthy babies in similar situation but never get a reply. I will obviously do whatever I can now to keep sugars down. Sorry for the long essay but i am glad to have found this thread. Any advice would be really appreciated. Best of luck to u all x

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Hi Alia5,

I'm really sorry but I don't know anything about type 2 diabetes, so wouldn't want to give any advice to you as it would probably be wrong.

However, on pregnancy, just remember that your hormones are all over the place and affecting how you feel, so it is normal to feel emotional. The fact that you feel so guilty already means you are a great mummy to this little one too.

It may be an idea to start a thread in type 2 with pregnancy to get some more help and advice specific to you?

Best wishes x