Pregnancy & Diabetes

VIRGINIA BEACH,Va - Molly Stewart likes to be prepared. As a Diabetic she has to schedule meals, snacks and shots. So, when she and her husband decided to have a baby it was no surprise - "we planned it," she said.

Molly went to see a doctor and diabetes educator.

"I got my meal plan and my sugars where they needed to be three months before we started trying."

Her doctor says that's the ideal way to do it. Margarita de Veciana specializes in Maternal-Fetal Medicine. "Once you conceive there's a very narrow window in which the baby is starting to form and the organs are forming," she said.

That window is three to six weeks after conception - a time when some women don't even know their pregnant.

"There are some medicines that are used in diabetics that are contra-indicated in pregnancy and need to be discontinued preferably prior to pregnancy," the doctor told WAVY.com
Those medicines and high blood sugar increases the risk for miscarriage, stillbirth and birth defects.

Molly keeps close tabs on her baby's health with a blood sugar and diet diary, extra prenatal visits and a new insulin pump that helps control her diabetes.

That's something she had trouble with at the end of her first pregnancy three years ago.

"I was up to eight injections a day. It doesn't hurt after a while, you don't feel it, but it was kind of nice not having to do that," she said.

Dr. de Veciana says it takes a lot more work to get through a pregnancy with diabetes, but looking at her two healthy boys, Molly says it's worth it.