If you are diabetes (type 1 or type 2) and pregnant, then strict blood-glucose range is necessary by lifestyle changes and insulin treatment. Which helps to avoid pregnancy complications and have a healthy baby?
Diabetes pregnancy treatment
Diabetic women who are pregnancy should maintain the blood-glucose level at target, particularly during first trimester during which the baby is rapidly growing. During this phase of pregnancy with high glucose levels, can increase the chances of birth defects or miscarriage.
Even type 2 diabetes, who is in anti-diabetic medication often advised by the doctor to use insulin injection instead of oral drugs, since its safety during pregnancy is not clearly known.
In addition, your doctors will advise you to monitor your glucose levels more frequently than normal. It is usual to have self-monitoring of blood-glucose even up to six to eight times a day.
Target Glucose level for diabetes during pregnancy
- Target blood-glucose level before meals; 70-100 mg/dl (3.9-5.6 mmol/l) for whole blood and 80-110 mg/dl (4.4-6.1 mmol/l) for plasma.
- Two hours after meals target blood-glucose level should be under 140 mg/dl (<7.8 mmol/l) for whole blood and under 155 mg/dl (<8.6 mmol/l) for plasma.
- HbA1c value less than or equal to 7.0%
Tips to achieve healthy diabetes pregnancy
- Follow a healthy diabetic meal.
- Self-monitoring of blood-glucose (SMBG) as advised by the doctor, mostly up to 6 to 8 times a day.
- Have insulin shots and learn to adjust the insulin level as per SMBG reading.
- Prevent, control, or treat hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia.
- Increase physical activity helps to achieve the target blood-glucose level easily also it supports healthy pregnancy and delivery.
- Maintain healthy weight; consult doctor to know your weight during pregnancy.
Insulin treatment precautions during diabetes pregnancy
- Know the risks of hypoglycemia or low blood-glucose, and always carry some high-sugar snack for immediate treatment.
- Eat small snacks between means is advisable.
- Have some snack after the exercise to prevent low blood-sugar or glucose.
- Exercise for two hours or more, and then it is advisable to eat some snack before start doing exercise.
- Learn to adjust the insulin dosage with respect to amount of food and exercise taken.