How did gestational diabetes affect your birth experience?

[heatherweh]

I was just wondering how a diagnoses of gestational diabetes affected your birth experience?

The first time around I did end up passing the three-hour, but for weeks I wasn't able to get in for the test, so I followed the strict diet. I read a lot about lowering blood sugar and whatnot, but don't think I got so far into it as to see how it would affect a birth plan (besides that it increases the chances they'll want to do a c-section).

Was anyone able to have a "natural birth" experience with gestational diabetes or does it require too many medical interventions?

Thank you in advance for sharing your story and educating me on the subject!

[purplemoon]

I had both pre-e and GD with my first pregnancy. The pre-e definately impacted the experience. However, my OB told me what to expect with GD, so I suppose this is how it could have played out.

I followed the diet and watched my sugars so I was doing fine. There wasn't much of a chance for an overly large baby because of the diet. They were not concerned with that at all. However, they did say that the placenta can break down faster with GD so NST's would take place at 38 weeks. As long as those passed I would be able to make it to 40. At 40 they would induce.

[Mommal]

I had borderline GD which was perfectly controlled via diet and exercise, and a wonderful vaginal birth.

For me, the key to having a good birth was finding the right caregiver. I started out going to a midwifery practice, and I was with them when the GD diagnosis was handed down. From the things they said after the diagnosis, I realized that when it came to treatment decisions, the 3 midwives had to bow to the 10 OBs in the practice, and if I stayed with that practice I was essentially going to be treated by the OBs' rules. So I found another, much more independent midwife whose OB backup treated her as a partner instead of a peon, and I had a great birth.

I did have 1 intervention, but it was not related to GD: I ended up with a Cytotec induction for PROM and slightly elevated BP, and because of the induction I had some intermittent EFM. But that was it.

Oh, and my daughter weighed 6 lbs, 7 oz, and she wasn't weighed until after she had nursed and taken in an oz or so of colostrum. So don't let anyone tell you that all GD moms have enormous babies!

[bobandjess99]

It did not affect my birth because I did not ALLOW it to affect my birth. If I had chosen to buy into the mainstream, or even the standard midwife-style "alternative" approaches, I'm sure i would have had testing, monitoring, procedures, etc that were not necesary, but I did not.
I have had 2 UC's of healthy babies, despite being diabetic.

[lifeguard]

I had an overall stressful GD experience. Despite my best efforts it was NOT possible to control my blood sugars through diet & exercise alone & it took a long time for us to get the insulin right - including a short hospital stay.

That said it did NOT affect my birth experience. I did include in birth plan several things to address potential issues including:
- if they wanted to give me an iv I would consent to a heplock only but would be tracking my blood sugar throughout labour & eating as normal.
- when baby was born I was going to bf first & then they could test his blood glucose if signs indicated it was necessary
- if supplementation for the baby was necessary it would not be by bottle.
- I found a doctor who did not automatically want a c-section just because I was GD. The endo was not on the same page but the ob was fabulous.

As it turned out they never once bothered with testing my blood sugar during labour, no one ever mentioned an iv, we had a vaginal delivery, ds was healthy & strong (no signs of GD problems) & his blood sugar was never even tested.

So NO GD definitely did not affect my birth experience.

[kohlby]

I only had undiagnosed, untreated GD. I had read up a lot on GD though it sounded as if diet controlled GD should be treated the same as a woman with no risks!

I did put in my birth plan what to do if baby had low blood sugar at birth with DD's birth, which was the undiagnosed, untreated case. And they actually followed it! She was 11lb 4oz at birth and had huge chest pudge - enough that some 6 months clothes were too small in the chest! Her blood sugar at birth was 38. Thanks to my birth plan, they knew to bring her to me ASAP. (I had an unplanned c-section due to her chest pudge not allowing her to move down). I nursed her and it went right up to the 60's and stayed up where it should and there were no problems.

This time around, I once again easily passed the 3 hour GTT - though I took it twice this pg. Due to insulin resistance being diagnosed when not pg about a year ago, I've been on a diabetic diet since last Jan. This baby is on target to only be 8 lbs! (I have two clotting genes so I get a lot of monitoring, including more ultrasounds). I'm not sure how much is diet and how much is just a smaller baby but 8lbs vs 11+ lbs is significant! (And my first was 10lb 8oz but the jury's still out if I had undiagnosed GD then since he had symptoms other than being big, and he's still big).