What can I expect from my doctors/healthcare

[Wooly123]

Hi

I just found out I’m pregnant on Tuesday and have my first appointment with a diabetes specialist and midwife next Wednesday. Due to the fact I moved up to Scotland just before covid hit us, I haven’t been able to see a diabetes consultant for nearly 2 years, as they said they didn’t see me as an urgent case so never got the chance to go to a pre-conception clinic. I had been managing my diabetes myself and have still been checking my hba1c and it was 7.3% in January. So I guess I have 2 questions:

1- is my hba1c a real worry here? I know it should ideally be lower before conception but I’m hoping now that a diabetes consultant has finally agreed that I am urgent enough to see, I can get the right help to improve it.

2- what can I expect in terms of appointments? I know that diabetic mums to be have to have more regular checks. Has anyone been through this and able to tell me what appointments to expect? Do we get scanned any earlier as well?

Any advice is much appreciated

 

[torzhill]

Hi, I’m 13w+6 so have just started the hospital care journey! I too have recently moved and have only just come under the care of my new hospital. My hospital decided to scan me at 8wks due to being diabetic, but my old hospital weren’t going to scan early, just the normal 12 wk dating scan. I’m in regular contact (every fortnight) with the diabetes nurses to go over my blood sugars and any concerns. I’m seeing the consultant again at 16 weeks, then the 20 week scan and then as a diabetic, we are offered growth scans after that. This may be subject to the hospital trust so it may be different elsewhere and also your care plan will be individualised to you so you may have more or less contact!
Your team should really support you and help to bring your hba1c down. Mine has gone from 6.7% to 5.4% since being pregnant by tweaking and just monitoring more as I’ve now got the dexcom!