Hi.  I have read alot about your comments on GD and if it is well controlled.  My GD diagnosis is because my fasting levels are around 110 or if I watch what I eat well in the high 90's.  I am very skeptical about using the insulin they are telling me I need.  I keep being told they just dont want my baby to die.  Why am I only having trouble with the fasing levels and will this harm my baby? What have you found to be true with regards to insulin treatment for someone with only problems with the fasting levels high.  Isnt insulin in the pregnancy risk factor C category?

Thank you so much and I am so glad to have been able to read your books!!

Laney

Dear Henci,

I read your post in regards the fasting levels question on page 3.  I am not sure how I missed it yesterday. 

So this leaves me still with the question of what is the research in regards to using insulin therapy.  In reading your books and articles it appears that treating the gestational diabetes has in fact no real research to prove that treatment improves anything.  I worry about this as in other posts you have said “if your diabetes is well controlled”.  I am also concerned because you said your body catches up at night, but mine does not.  It is the fasting levels I am having problems with; daytime levels are fine.  Does this change the research on GB any?  I am going round and round with my OB and midwife.  They are certain I am going to have problems with this pregnancy if I do not take insulin.  I am having an extremely hard time finding a more open practice to go with, and the stress of every visit is causing me to wonder if it is worth going not to mention what it is doing to my levels all by itself. 

I had to switch meters and this morning I took my levels and there was 10 points different between the two.  This is all very frustrating. 

At what numbers is it important to control GB if any?  How do you know since when the studies that were done seem to pick the numbers out of the air and then lower them over time just because?  What are the effects of insulin usage on baby and mother?  It bothers me that insulin is pregnancy risk factor C also.

Thanks for your time,

Laney

This all sounds very distressing and frustrating. Unfortunately, I cannot be of much help to you. Only a midwife or doctor is qualified to help you determine your care. The best thing I can do is send you to "Informed Decision Making" on the Childbirth Connection website. There you will find information that can help you sort this out with your care provider.

-- Henci

Some links of interest:

http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/amjepid;152/11/1009

http://parenting.ivillage.com/pregnancy/pcomplications/0,,9cgc,00.html

http://parenting.ivillage.com/pregnancy/pcomplications/0,,9z3m,00.html

http://www.plus-size-pregnancy.org/gd/gd_index.html

http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/gdmodent.html

Thanks, Maria, for these links! The study on the uselessness and harm of screening was new (but not surprising to me), and I'm going to download it for my files.

-- Henci

P.S. The ones on the iVillage website are mine. I wrote them years ago when I worked as an independent contractor for what was then a separate channel, ParentsPlace.

Thanks Maria.  I was looking for research to help me with my answers not just what someone thinks.  I appreciate the time you took to post the links.