Question about GD

Hi!

I had my one hour test last week because one of my pee tests had glucose
in it. It went well and I'm within the normal range.
However. I took the test because my midwife told me: If I have GD the
babies glucose levels will "match" mine as long as she's inside and
while that's not perfect, it is ok. But once she's born she'll have to
be monitored closely because her glucose levels will drop and she might
need some special care. I can't remember all of the conversation, sorry.
But basically her problem with GD isn't really me having it, but rather
the babies health after birth.

So, does the Glucose Tolerance test make sense late in pregnancy because
of a possible risk to the baby after birth, or did I get something wrong?

cu
nicole

NL wrote:
Hi!

I had my one hour test last week because one of my pee tests had glucose
in it. It went well and I'm within the normal range.
However. I took the test because my midwife told me: If I have GD the
babies glucose levels will "match" mine as long as she's inside and
while that's not perfect, it is ok. But once she's born she'll have to
be monitored closely because her glucose levels will drop and she might
need some special care. I can't remember all of the conversation, sorry.
But basically her problem with GD isn't really me having it, but rather
the babies health after birth.

So, does the Glucose Tolerance test make sense late in pregnancy because
of a possible risk to the baby after birth, or did I get something wrong?

You're close, but not quite.

Basically, normally your body regulates the amount of glucose
in your bloodstream, using insulin to deal with things when there's
too much glucose. If you have gestational diabetes, that system isn't
working as well, and you have excess glucose in your system. Your
blood also goes to the baby through the placenta, so if your blood
has excess glucose, so does the baby's blood. The baby will therefore
make extra insulin to deal with the excess glucose.
As soon as the baby's born, the baby no longer has access
to your high-glucose blood; however, the baby's body is still producing
lots of insulin because that's what it's been doing. All that excess
insulin gobbles up too much glucose and all of a sudden, the baby
is hypoglycemic. This, by the way, is another reason why it's a
bad idea to starve yourself in labor. If you go hypoglycemic during
labor, so does your baby, and that's not good. Of course, if you
watch your diet, your levels shouldn't spike too high and none of
this should happen.
That said, your test indicates that you don't have gestational
diabetes, so your glucose levels should be within normal ranges and
none of this is a problem for you. Sugar in your urine is not
a very precise indicator of gestational diabetes. Many people
have gestational diabetes without ever spilling any sugar, and
some people spill sugar in their urine and have perfectly normal
glucose metabolism.
You don't need to take the test multiple times or late in
pregnancy because of all this. The glucose tolerance test is
designed to see how your body reacts to a known quantity of sugar.
It's not testing to see how much glucose in your system. Whether
you have GD or not, your glucose levels vary throughout the day.
It's testing to see how your body processes the glucose. If that's
fine, your levels will vary, but they shouldn't ever get too high.
If you *do* have GD then you work to keep your levels in the normal
range and you can monitor your levels with a glucose meter to be
sure of that. If your levels are normal, then the risk of neonatal
hypoglycemia is lower.

Best wishes,
Ericka

hecky thump, you didn't even screen positive for GD, it is potentially
an issue for babies who's mums to have GD, but even then, usually only
the ones that are big, but even then seems to be something that's only a
problem if it's symptomatic, asymptomatic low blood sugar in babies
doesn't seem to be a problem short term or long term.

http://www.who.int/reproductive-heal...ia_newborn.htm is
a complex, but thorough page on the subject, it's a pretty narrow group
of babies where it seems a good plan to actually test the blood sugar
rather than only respond if symptoms are observed and having spilled
sugar into the urine isn't one of them.

Anne

Anne Rogers schrieb:
hecky thump, you didn't even screen positive for GD,

*g* yeah, I was just asking because I wasn't sure if I misunderstood or
not really. Thanks for the answer :-)

cu
nicole

Ericka Kammerer schrieb:
NL wrote:

So, does the Glucose Tolerance test make sense late in pregnancy
because of a possible risk to the baby after birth, or did I get
something wrong?

You're close, but not quite.

Thanks for the answer! I was just not sure if I understood the reason or
not.

cu
nicole