World Diabetes Day is annually aimed at reaffirming the need for awareness and testing for Diabetes. Diabetes is even riskier for expectant mums.
If you are both Diabetic and pregnant it is considered as a threat and there is need to pay special attention to your health. It is even more problematic for women in their late 30s or for those carrying more than one baby to give birth to healthy babies without damaging the mother’s health in the process.
The Golden rule for women with diabetes and pregnant is ‘Take Care of Your Baby and Yourself’. It may seem complicated but here are few notes to keep.
Keeping your blood glucose as close to normal as possible before and during your pregnancy is the most important thing you can do to stay healthy and have a healthy baby. Your health care team can help you learn how to use meal planning, physical activity, and medicines to reach your blood glucose targets. Together, you’ll create a plan for taking care of yourself and your diabetes.
Pregnancy causes a number of changes in your body, so you might need to change how you manage your Diabetes. Even if you’ve had diabetes for years, you may need to change your meal plan, physical activity routine, and medicines. As you get closer to your delivery date, your needs might change again. In case you didn’t know here is some horrifying ways of how diabetes can affect you and your baby.
High blood glucose levels before and during pregnancy can :
• worsen your long-term diabetes problems, such as eye problems, heart disease, and kidney disease
• increase the chance of problems for your baby, such as being born too early, weighing too much, having breathing problems or low blood glucose right after birth, or other health problems
• increase the risk of your baby having birth defects
• increase the risk of losing your baby through miscarriage, which means loss of the baby before 20 weeks, or stillbirth, which means the baby dies in the womb after 20 weeks
Having diabetes can also increase your chances of developing the following conditions:
• Pre-eclampsia a condition where one develop high blood pressure and too much protein in the urine which cause serious problems for the baby and the women
• Depression can make you too tired to manage diabetes and care for your baby during or after pregnancy
If you already know your status, take care of yourself and your baby, for those who don’t take this opportunity to get tested. Join the #Test2Prevent movement to empower, encourage and raise awareness to pregnant women.
Main Image : praisewedding.com
