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.
Is there any problem to my eyes during pregnancy?
Generally, there is slight eye deterioration during pregnancy, specifically at the start and likely, there will be changes throughout the pregnancy. You should visit an ophthalmologist many times during pregnancy. There will be a continuous risk for the first year of post-delivery, thus until that time, you need to visit the ophthalmologist regularly.
Does diabetes affect my kidney during my pregnancy?
During pregnancy, a diabetic mother’s kidney function drops a little and back to normal after the birth of baby. However, if you are having kidney disease from the start of pregnancy, your kidney may determinate a lot and will not heal.
I have increased nerve pain, does means any nerve damage?
Generally, during pregnancy, even normal women experience some pain, as a diabetes mother you may experience a little more. Some women may experience tingling in the limbs or carpal tunnel syndrome that goes after give birth.
Saving Cord blood
Cord blood is the blood that presents in the placenta and in the attached umbilical cord after childbirth. Many people start collecting cord blood and keep it safely in the cord blood banks, because it contains stem cells used in treating of genetic disorders. Cord blood is the rich source of stem cells used to treat over 75 diseases.
It is already in use as transplant medicine for treating over 20,000 patients for a wide range of diseases, including types of leukemia and immune system illnesses. It is still in experiment, and scientists continue to research its uses in treating other diseases like cerebral palsy, stroke, and diabetes. There is a potential for using cord blood stem cells for treating a numerous diseases and conditions may continue to increase. Cord blood also is in use as a regenerative medicine research, where researchers evaluate stem cells for their ability to induce healing and regenerate cells to repair tissues.
There are usually costs involved, and if you have the money and like to cover all possibilities then you should look into what is available locally.