Planning for a Diabetic Pregnancy

Now that I am coming up on my first year wedding anniversary in April (April 18, in case you were wondering) baby fever has taken over my brain. My husband and I are not exactly ready for a baby quite yet but, starting a family is definitely on the horizon.

Before we got married last year I prepped Mike that having children is going to be a huge challenge and he and I agreed that if it happens it does and if not that is ok too. There are so many concerns that I have because pregnancy in type 1 diabetes is considered risky and there is a higher risk for birth defects and miscarriages and very large babies. It concerns me so much that I will be one of the unlucky ones.

Last year on my personal diabetes chat website Diabetes Talkfest, I had a scheduled chat with Dr. Lois Jovanovic who is a diabetes and pregnancy expert out of the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute in Santa Barbara, California (click here for the chat transcript) who said that healthy pregnancies are possible in patients with type 1 diabetes with well controlled blood pre-conception blood sugars and an A1c of 6.5 or below.

I have also heard first hand from a number of women with diabetes all whom have had healthy pregnancies that it is completely possible with a lot of hard work and determination.

So with that knowledge, this past summer I really started watching everything I ate, exercised more, checked my blood sugars around 12-14 times a day (this was pre-CGM) and wrote everything down. I had gotten my A1c down from a 9.1 to 7.4. It was amazing! And I was very proud of what I had accomplished. I have not had an A1c below 8 in years. Go me!

In September, I went to my endocrinologist appointment and we discussed pregnancy for real this time and what range was healthy to have a baby and he told me 6.5 just like Dr. Jovanovic had told me earlier in the year. I thought maybe he would have told me 7.0 and with a 7.4, I was almost there (good to dream I guess).

He gave me a smile and said "Gina, you can do this you are almost there, I have faith in you." He is a very encouraging doctor. I did feel very frustrated because it took me a while to get down below an 8 and 6.5 to be honest seems impossible.

"Ok doc, if you say so" I told him with a grin. He said as long as my numbers were in good range that I would be able to have a healthy baby and would be in the same health risk bracket as a woman without diabetes.

That made me feel better. Now, If I can only get that blasted A1c down!

That same day I met with my CDE/Nurse Practioner as well, I figured kill two birds with one stone. Frustrated that I have to really get down to an A1c of 6.5, I told her what the endo said and asked her "Ideally how long will it take to get an a1c of 6.5?" She responded, your next blood test.

Really wow. That quick?

Yes. You can do it Gina!

That was two you can do its in one day! I started feeling like I could really do it.