I have Gestational Diabetes.Worried Nurses will Demand Formula for Low blood sugar.

[gingergrltea]

 I Bfed my second child for 2 years.It was a wonderful experiance. I am looking forward to the bond with my third child. I think formula is icky,and that is JMHO.

I am worried 1. That I will have a big baby,and need a C section,then milk will come in late. My first child was 7lb 14oz my second was 7lbs 0oz..... This is my GD baby,I am scared that she will be big,I had a hard time having my 7lb 14oz son,and ripped bad

2. That my child will have low blood sugar,and the nurses will demand I give my baby a bottle. I can't due it.

How do I go about this,what are my legal rights don't want CPS on my A$$ for refusing a bottle.

What do I say? I am so stressed out. Any moms go through this?

[4midablemama]

I had gestational diabetes, diet controlled, with my first child. They told me that she was going to be a big baby, upwards of 9 lbs.; she was 7 lbs. 3 oz. They checked her blood sugar when she was born, found that she was fine, and nary a word was said to me about supplementing with formula.

[Megan73]

One suggestion I've heard for GD moms is to start hand-expressing and freezing colostrum (syringes work well for small amounts) in the third trimester to have on hand in case a big baby's blood sugar starts dropping. You can also hand-express after birth into a spoon and feed it to baby(along with putting them to the breast frequently.
Can you contact your local La Leche League for more advice?
HTH!

[gingergrltea]

Thank you for the tips =). I Never thought to contact LLL. I will be doing that. I just don't need a nurse on a power trip telling me what to feed my baby. One of my other kids had jandaice,they accused it of being my fault for breastfeeding. Wish I was brave enough to have a home birth.

[MindfulBirth]

Please also contact the lactation consultant at the hospital where you are delivering.  She can be an advocate for you directly to the nurses.  She can also help you hand express colostrum in the hospital to give to your child if supplementation is necessary. 

[sillysmile]

I had GD with my last pregnancy, and was advised to order some milk from a milk bank to have on hand in case supplementation was needed. So I went ahead and ordered 3 oz from a milk bank in CA, had it shipped frozen, and brought it to the hospital with me. The milk banks require a prescription (I believe) and I just got one from my OB.

Despite the very low odds, it turned out that my baby was very hypoglycemic at birth and required immediate supplementation (within the first hour). Her sugar was in the teens. I nursed her very soon after she was born, and then they checked her sugar and whisked her away to the NICU with dad while I was getting sewn up etc.

DH had the donor milk on hand, and they finger fed her a huge quantity for a newborn (~1 oz). We continued to supplement with a bit of donor milk at feedings for the next day or so (via SNS) to make sure her sugar stayed up, and I pumped after a lot of feeds to get my milk to come in as soon as possible. By about the 3rd day my milk was really coming in, I ditched the pump, and that was that.

Anyway, my recommendations would be:

- Get the donor BM, just in case. If we didn't have it, our DD would certainly have been fed formula or IV glucose to correct her sugar. I would have consented to this, but I was much happier with donor milk (and finger feeding vs. bottles). Some people say that nursing is the best thing in this situation, but there was no way that I had enough colostrum at that time to correct her sugar rapidly.. and her sugar was dangerously low and needed to be corrected ASAP to avoid the risk of permanent brain injury. For less severe hypoglycemia this might work.

- Hand-expressing colostrum before birth sounds like a cool idea in theory, but I think it would be hard to get enough to correct a low. You don't want to pump since you might induce labor.

- Remeber that your risk for a low is very small (even if you're on insulin, etc), so try not to get too stressed out. The best thing you can do is just try to control your GD as well as possible and check your sugar frequently during labor to make sure it's not too high.

[aratiaw]

I expressed colostrum into syringes before my last CS, froze it and had it with me on the day. Hand expressing, I could get 5ml per session with relative ease (30ml is about 1oz). I think there were about 15ml in total - I probably would have expressed more if I had GD. DD didn't need it in the end, but it was reassuring to know that if her BSL was low and I couldn't feed directly, that her first feed would still be colostrum.

[ewe+lamb]

For both GD babies and jaundice - breastfeed breastfeed breastfeed is the most important thing to do, skin to skin and all will be fine - I'm presuming that your GD is well controlled and not a problem - then your baby shouldn't have a problem - check things out before going to the hospital amek sure that you have a LC who is up to date with the current information - hang in there and let us know how you get on.

[lifeguard]

The risk of a big baby is for uncontrolled gd - it shouldn't be a concern if you are keeping things controlled.

With ds I had gd & I was concerned about this. After he was born they didn't even test as he was so obviously doing so well which was a relief but I don't expect I'll get the same thing this time. I am thinking about trying to express colostrum but have not got around to it just yet. I do intend on bfing before doing any supplementation at all. My gd is better controlled this time so I don't see having troubles, but it's always good to have a plan in place & be proactive.