I Found Out Later That I Had Gestational at 26 weeks....

by Kelly
(USA)

I found out I had gestational diabetes after extensive testing 26 weeks into my pregnancy. I was at high risk for it because I have a strong maternal family history of Type 2 diabetes anyway. I was heartbroken because the last thing I needed was one more complication during the pregnancy - it was already high risk because I had had many miscarriages. The doctor told me I needed to keep my blood sugar under control because otherwise the baby might be a high birth weight. When he also said that women with gestational diabetes were at greater risk for having a stillborn baby, I just burst into tears. I went to see a nutritionist and she gave me a great diabetes diet plan. I worked hard to stay on it and she was very pleased; despite this, though, my blood sugar still fluctuated wildly and the doctor told me I needed to take insulin injections for it. I was so disappointed because I'd worked so hard on the diet, but he said that sometimes despite diet and exercise this happens. I began to give myself insulin shots and continued with the diabetic diet; one of the things I did additionally was to take a short, 15 minute walk after every meal. At 30 weeks I went into pre-term labor and was on bed rest until the baby was born at 37 weeks. My baby was healthy and not overweight, nor was he hypoglycemic. My diabetes went away the day I gave birth. I was very happy to be able to stop taking the insulin and, though that was 12 years ago and despite my strong family history of Type 2 diabetes, I have not developed it...yet. I'm well past 10 years older than the rest of my family was when they developed diabetes, too. I exercise regularly.