A baby and adult, yesterday
As I’m having a c-section at 38 weeks, the baby needed to have a shot of steroids before she’s born to make sure her lungs are nice and strong when she arrives. I was surprised by this as I thought 38 weeks was past the date when steroids are required, but according to the latest Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists guidelines, it’s generally recommended that all babies to be born by c-section before 39 weeks are given steroids. So that’s what we did.
The one advantage of the whole situation was that because everyone was so busy telling me “steroids will play havoc with your diabetes” it did stop them from telling me that all diabetics have massive babies for a short while at least, so that made a pleasant change. Unfortunately I was unable to locate the havoc prevention setting on my pump, so instead I took to the interweb and asked people via Facebook, Twitter and ;
That’s bloody impressive control co-writer. I couldn’t manage that even without being pregnant and on steroids. I award you today’s gold-star for diabetes perfection! 🙂
Why thank you co-writer, I shall wear it with pride. To be honest, it’s better than I’d normally manage too, it’s amazing what 100% focus on diabetes can achieve. Not really sustainable long term though!
Agreed! 100% focus on diabetes = insanity and despond!
Brilliant. I agree – when i was pregnant (in those days without a pump and without a sensor) what i had to do was blood test every half hour and really not do much… my first pregnancy I literally stayed sitting down as much as possible for the entire 9 months, as exercise was what got me – I know why now, the basal injection at night couldn’t cover those periods when I need NO basal at all, 2 four hour periods of the day for me. I got through it and when you are thinking of your baby, you just do it, but it is impossible to live like that long term.
One thing i can advise on, Alison, and that is even if it is baby’s feeding time, you eat first if it’s a meal time and eat before each feed. If you are low during the day, this impacts on the CHO level in your milk, so the baby might be hungry in the evening feeds. But breast milk protects against diabetes in later life, and everything is better for the baby with breast milk so I felt it was as vital to do it as keep good control. I had loads of milk for my daughter, but second pregnancy we moved house when I was 9 months pregnant, and had problems, So I fed breast in the day and topped up at night with SMA.
Wow – that is really impressive! Your strategy worked really well 🙂 I really can’t imagine how people deal with things like this on MDI!
HI Alison, Thank you so much for your post. Ive been doing a lot of googling and this is the most helpful info I’ve found. i’m about to undergo the same. type 1 , pregnant and c-section at 38 weeks if not earlier. My obstetrician also want to give me steroids 2 days before and i will try and convince him to leave me at least 36 hours post the last injection. Just wanted to check the type of steroid you were given and the dose to make sure the info regarding the insulin resistance is relevant to me. Im getting celestone (betamethasone) at 11.4mg x 2 doses 24 hours apart. Were you on the same? I know you were given the dose at 12 hours apart not 24 but was it the same steroid and a similar dose.
Thank you
Regina
Hi Regina. I’m sorry, I don’t know which steroids I had. Very best of luck with it all, I hope everything goes well for you.