Diabetic Birth Stories

Hello! I'm looking for personal experiences about giving birth as a type 1 (especially how you got on being on an insulin/glucose drip during labour). I'm 33 weeks pregnant with my first baby & well controlled thanks to DAFNE training & the support of the team at QEH London. I'm eager to have the most natural birth experience possible. Let me know how pregnancy/labour/birth went for you! Thank you!

Hello Im a new graduate to the DAFNE course and trying to get the best information on becoming pregnant, at the moment I am struggling to get my HbA1c down, any help would be very very grateful. Thank you x

I am Type I and have had three pregnancies and births, all of them different! I was induced each time but each labour took its own course. One was quite long, one was reasonable and one was very quick. Interestingly, the type of labour I had reflects the personality of the child now!
I did have a natural birth each time, once with forceps and an epidural, once with pethadine and the last one with just gas and air. So I seem to have tried everything. My conclusion is that as each child is different, each labour will be different. The amazing thing is that once that baby is in your arms, the process of getting it out is soon forgotten!

Hi Lucy.

I am type 1 and have had two successful pregnancies . My first pregnancy was induced and I was on a insulin/glucose drip during labour. I also had an epidural so my main problem was that I couldn't walk about during labour I just had to basically lie in my bed attached to 3 different drips. This was over nine years ago so whether things have changed since then I don't know. My baby was born natually at 10lbs 4oz and was absolutely fine after the birth. He was given blood tests for a few hours after the birth to ensure that his blood glucose levels were ok. Just myself left feeling rather uncomfortable (as you can imagine!).

During my second pregnancy I went into labour myself at 36 weeks. As my baby was breach and labour was progressing quite quickly I was taken into theatre for a c-section. I did not have any insulin or glucose drip for this labour. My baby was born already weighing 6lbs 13oz so I was quite grateful that I had not gone any longer as I think he would have been at least the same size as my first. He too was given blood tests to check his glucose levels and thankfully he was absolutely fine and didn't even need to go into special care. In my own experience I actually felt much better in myself after my c-section but then I think everyones experieces will be totally different.

It amazed me how my requirements for insulin reduced back to my pre-pregnancy levels immediately my babies were born.

I really hope that everything goes well for your birth. Don't forget to leave a message on here to let us know how you went on. That's if you can find the time once baby arrives!

Thanks Karen & Fiona, it really helps to hear how others in the same situation got on!
Hi Daisy I bet your HbA1c will come down just by following dafne guidelines & eating healthily, thats what happened for me. Good luck with getting pregnant! Lucy

Hi everyone, I've just joined. I did DAFNE probably about 7 years ago when it was still quite new, I'm glad there is finally an online site!

I've just had my first appointment with the pre-pregnancy diabetes clinic and am trying to get my HbA1c down. Its proving very hard. I don't know if I've forgotten some of the training as it was so long ago, but I'm struggling.

Any tips/support gratfeully received. I am very very nervous about the birth as I am needle-phobic and don't deal with drips very well. I'm sure I'll have other things to worry about but right now that is what is freaking me out.

Hi,

I'm 15 weeks pregnant and petrified. Although all the success stories have made me feel reassured. Thank you for sharing. Fingers crossed in 22/23 weeks ill add my own. The fact you went for a second and third baby is brilliant. Very encouraging.

Ive had a lot of morning (all day everyday anytime) sickness which has made life difficult. I thought at 13 weeks it had passed but it has struck back this week.

Being dafne trained im adjusting my BI and QA as and when trends develop. so far I have reduced my BI by 12 units although my day time ratios have increased.

I'm still having 2-3 hypos during the day which i can recognize and react to. My concern is night time. I'm going to bed with a BG of 5.9, dipping to 3.3 in the night treating it but having a morning BG of 8.7. Ive tried treating the 3.3 with less CPs - down to 3grams last night but still waking at 8.7. I've tried less BI but i still get the 8ish reading in the morning. I'm waiting to hear back from the nurse.

I don't know what to do and fear all the extra glucose is going straight to the baby. Any ideas? Having been in control prior to conceiving i'm finding the changes a real challenge.

i know from the course I will start to need more insulin at around 26 weeks - can anyone say what happened for them and how they coped.

Is there any literature out there to refer to for support? The Dafne guide doesn't really deal with what happens in pregnancy.

Jess - i find each day a struggle at the moment but keeping the diary really helps and guides me to what changes i need to make. I find being regimented, eating similar meals and injecting same time each day helps show a pattern. Cutting out alcohol and exercise for a few days might help as both can affect your BG levels. Sometimes there is no reason for a rogue result.Don't be too hard on yourself, its difficult getting it right. Are there any refresher courses you could sign up to? I think they are running some at my local hospital once every 3 months or so. Good luck.

Katy,

I wouldn't worry too much about BG of 8 in the morning. This is not extremely high and as along as using a corrective dose at breakfast brings you back in line by lunch time I wouldn't have thought it too much of an issue. As long as your HBA1C results as still within the targets I think you will be OK. It is probably more important that you try not to have night time hypos. Have you tried having a bit of something to eat before bed. Both my pregnancies were pre DAFNE and I didn't have the information available to me then that I have now but I always found that I needed to have my BG a little higher before bed to ensure that I didn't dip too low in the night. I was unfortunate in that I lost all my hypo warning symptoms during both my pregnancies so it was more important for me to keep myself that bit higher at night. This never effected my HBA1C because I was at really good levels during the day. Also I had 2 lovely healthy babies.

With regards to your question about coping with the increased insulin requirements, I think that you will find this much easier with your background DAFNE training. It was very much guess work when I did it but I think using the DAFNE principles it will probably not be too bad. You may find though that you have to use a bigger ratio of insulin to carbohydrate than you are used to as from my expreience the insulin requirements increase quite dramatically. Maybe someone from your DAFNE team maybe able to give you some more information on this.

I reallly hope things work out well for you and I know it is hard for you at the moment but it will all be worth it in the end!!

Take care.

Karen
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Karen - My nurse agrees with you. She gave me very similar advice so fingers crossed I may have a full night's sleep before the week is out and get to eat biscuits at bedtime. Reading your success story has really helped. Thank you.

Katy,

So pleased you have managed to speak to your diabetic nurse and hopefully things will settle down for you soon. Enjoy you bedtime snack! and most of all the rest of your pregnancy.

All the best

Karen
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