Are You Pregnant and Also Have Diabetes?

If you are pregnant and have diabetes, you have a lot of other health concerns besides how high your sugar is. For instance, there is a condition which is called macrosomia which can occur. This is where a pregnant woman with diabetes produces a larger than normal baby. This can occur because the mother’s blood and the baby’s blood are interchanging all the time, so the baby produces insulin as a response to the mother’s diabetic blood and it can lead to fat deposits that cause the baby to grow larger than normal.

You should know that you can have a healthy baby even though you’re struggling with pregnancy diabetes, but you have to know what you can do. Most of the time, women don’t realize that they are diabetic when they are pregnant until a later time in the pregnancy when they have their sugar levels tested. For this reason, it’s likely a good idea to take preventative measures that you can before you are diagnosed with this problem.

Maintaining A Healthy Pregnant Body

Every pregnant woman needs to work extra hard to keep their body healthy throughout their pregnancy and this means maintaining a healthier than normal lifestyle. Just because you’re pregnant and craving sweet sugary snacks doesn’t mean that you have to indulge all the time. Nor does it mean that you should always be eating.

Instead, when you’re working to stay healthy and prevent problems such as diabetes during your pregnancy, you should maintain a healthy diet with lots of whole grains, lean protein and fresh fruits and veggies. Skip the sweet snacks most of the time and only eat them as a “treat” like you did in the past. You don’t want to undo all of your healthy living progress just because you are pregnant. Plus, the healthier you eat, the easier it will be to take the extra weight off once you’ve had your baby.

You should also continue to get regular exercise. You can maintain intense cardio workouts for most of your pregnancy and when you get to the point that this might be too difficult, it’s important to continue your daily activities and consider doing yoga and going for walks. Since both of these exercises are low impact, you will find that you are able to keep your weight down, stay flexible and might offset many of the negative effects of pregnancy such as leg cramps and sore stiff muscles.

Diabetes Treatment

If you do find that you have gestational diabetes – diabetes during pregnancy, you need to treat your condition properly so that you can not only stay healthy, but your baby can, too. Proper treatment for you might include a few things which you will have to become familiar with.

• You will need to monitor your blood glucose level. If you don’t do this, your diabetes can get out of control, which can not only cause you to suffer from health problems. You may need to check your levels.

• You might also need to adjust your insulin doses based on your blood glucose results. When you get enough insulin, you will be able to prevent your baby from making too much and you will be able to stay healthy throughout your pregnancy on your own. You should keep your sugar levels balanced at all times.

• You will also need to know how to control hypoglycemia which is common among pregnant women who have diabetes. When you can control this problem, you are more able to maintain your blood glucose levels.

You can successfully manage your pregnancy diabetes and have a healthy baby with the help of your health care professional.