Recent advances in diabetes management have helped hundreds of women wishing to have children the ability to do so. With careful oversight from your doctors and healthy diabetes management, you can have as much of a chance for a successful pregnancy. It’s important that if you’re considering pregnancy, you should get a consultation with your fetal medicine specialist or gynecologist to assess your health and provide a specific plan that works for you. However, if you have diabetes and want some advice ahead of time, here are some tips for managing diabetes while pregnant.
Preconception Planning and Diabetes Management
If you have diabetes and wish to have children, then it’s recommended that you start planning about six months before conception. Having your diabetes in good control and managing your diabetes during pregnancy is essential. If you have decided you wish to become pregnant, there are a few tasks you should do before your planned conception:
- Speak with Your Endocrinologist: Once you decide that you want to become pregnant, making an appointment with your diabetes physician can help provide excellent tools for diabetes management during your pregnancy. These physicians can review your health status, pregnancy plans, dietary habits, exercise, and other concerns.
- Visit Your Obstetrician: Visiting your obstetrician can help provide you with ultrasounds and other laboratory tests to determine your current fetal growth and development. Before pregnancy, your obstetrician can provide medical assessments that test your blood glucose levels, diabetes history, eye evaluations, and other diabetic concerns related to the thyroid, gynecological, renal, and cardiac evaluations.
Because the first critical stages of fetal development begin within the first eight weeks, it’s important to see your primary care physicians and specialists, and if you’re more prone to a high-risk pregnancy, seeing a fetal medicine specialist to help guide you during this period, especially if you are already pregnant and have uncontrolled diabetes.
Why You Should Also See A Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialist
Consulting with a maternal-fetal medicine specialist before or during pregnancy can be a valuable experience, especially if you have pre-existing medical conditions such as diabetes. If you have diabetes, working with a maternal-fetal medicine specialist can help you optimize your blood sugar control before conception to reduce the risk of fetal anomalies and help with other onset conditions contributing to your diabetes, such as obesity.
Working with a maternal-fetal medicine specialist can also be helpful for those already pregnant and who face gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes is a common condition. With the help of your specialists and obstetricians, they can help follow up on the baby’s growth and well-being and manage your health through nutritional counseling, medication management, and glucose monitoring.
Having a high-risk pregnancy doesn’t mean that all your future pregnancies will be high risk, as certain health conditions can change over time. Most importantly, managing diabetes while pregnant shouldn’t be done alone, as your maternal-fetal medicine specialists and obstetricians have the expertise and technical skill to keep you and your future baby as healthy as possible.
