Low blood sugar and pregnancy

[dbhubbie]

My wife is a type 1 diabetic and is almost 12 weeks pregnant.  She recently experienced a dangerously low blood sugar (20 or below) and had to be taken to the emergency room.  All the literature I've read and the doctors I've asked say that it isn't a terrible problem as long as the mother didn't stop breathing and the reaction was treated promptly, but we still can't shake the fear and anxiety that something bad happened.  The doctor let us listen to the heartbeat, so we know (rationally, at least) that everything should be okay, but I was wondering if anyone else had any information on this subject.

[JDRF-Team-sgg]

Thi is my day to answer questions on the Forum, and it appears that you got the perfect person to answer you... I am a type 1 female who has had 2 children. During the second pregnancy, my doctors, who were a team at a teaching hospital, sort of made a test case out of me. They deliberately set my glucose goals so low that I actually passed out cold about once a week from hypoglycemia. I feared for my life, but my doctors assured me that the baby's glucose levels remain constant. If the mom's glucose drops, only SHE is affected. They likened baby to a little leach, who takes just what he or she needs, leaving the mom whatever is left. As long as the breathing doesn't stop or heart doesn't stop beating, the baby is unfazed by this. For 9 months, I was overdosed and I was taken to the hospital for glucose IV treatment about once every week or two. To make a long story short, my son was a little small, but perfectly healthy. (The experiment was to prove the relationship between glucose levels and size of baby.) He is now a young adult and is smart and healthy in every way. And huge. So no damage was done, in spite of the frequency of my traumas during that time.

In any event, I happen to agree that your baby is just fine. Your wife should probably try to make sure she tests every 2-3 hours just to catch glucose lows when they are happening while tightly controlled. if I had thought to do this, I would not have had the problems with frequent severe lows that I had. it just never occurred to me to set my schedule to test once before breakfast, 2-3 hours after breakfast, once before lunch, 2-3 hours AFTER lunch, before dinner, and 2-3 hours after dinner, etc. Glucose levels can then be seen dropping or rising and she can adjust her insulin or drink some juice accordingly, BEFORE something severe happens to her. She might want to start always carrying 2 small 6-oz. cans of juice in her purse wherever she goes so she always has a quickly-digested source of carbs handy if she needs it. I do this now, and lows are no longer a problem, despite very tight control.

I wish you both a healthy baby and healthy wife. Best of luck during the rest of her pregnancy.

[dbhubbie]

Thanks, that is exactly the kind of information it takes to relieve a nervous, slightly hypochondriac (sp?) father-to-be like me.  If I'm this much of a nervous wreck now, I can only imagine how I'll be once the baby is born!!  Thanks again.