Hypoglycemia during pregnancy for extended period can affect both you and your baby, thus to avoid it you need to know symptoms and proper treatment.
Hypoglycemia during pregnancy
Low blood glucoses do not seem to harm the baby. Hypoglycemia is more common in the first trimester; there will be fewer chances in later pregnancy due to development of insulin resistance. Animal studies show the hypoglycemia has to be extremely severe for an extended period before any harm could make to the baby.
Below are the blood-glucose levels, which are considering as low blood glucose:
- A fasting blood-glucose level is below 63 mg/dl (3.5 mmol/l).
- A postprandial blood-glucose level (one hour after a meal) is below 81 mg/dl (4.5 mmol/l).
- A postprandial blood-glucose level (two hours after a meal) is below 72 mg/dl (4.0 mmol/l).
Reduce your insulin dose and take a proportional amount of glucose containing snacks to bring it back to the normal range.
Hypoglycemia pregnancy symptoms
Hypoglycemia symptoms usually develop, when the blood-glucose level has fallen below 70mg/dL. Common mild hypoglycemia symptoms include heavy hunger, nausea, sweating (cold and clammy), rapid heartbeat, trembling, and numbness feeling.
If the blood-glucose level has fallen below 55 mg/dL, moderate hypoglycemia symptoms of nervous origin start appearing. Common moderate hypoglycemia symptoms include irritability, anxiety, anger, confusion, dizziness, fatigue, poor coordination difficult walking and talking.
If the blood-glucose level has fallen below 35 to 40 mg/dL, severe hypoglycemia symptoms start appearing, which are considering as fatal. Common severe hypoglycemia symptoms include body temperature drop, seizures, and coma.
Most of the symptoms of low blood-glucose are similar to pregnancy symptoms, and thus you should learn to differentiate it, otherwise test your glucose level to avoid any complications.
Pregnancy hypoglycemia treatment & prevention
Treatment for hypoglycemia is by ingesting glucose to raise the blood-glucose level above 70 mg/dL Some of the glucose sources are glucose tablets, gels, fruit juice, soft drink, candy, or just sugar or honey. Measure your blood-glucose level after 15 minutes of ingesting glucose to make sure your glucose level is 70 or above. Repeat these steps until BS number is above 70 mg/dL.
Hypoglycemia can prevent by modifying your dosage of insulin, insulin type, diet you ingest, and break the big three meals into four to six smaller meals.