32 weeks pregnant with gestational diabetes and the frustrating medical advice this causes
A very hormonal rant on medical services in this country. I'm grateful to the individuals looking after me and the kindness shown to me at most appointments. So take this with a pinch of salt.
I am 32 weeks pregnant. I have been overweight for a lot of my life. I feel better than I have in my whole pregnancy. I’m active and feeling healthy - yet my medical team keeps rattling off statistics and likelihoods of what might happen to me and my baby, if I don’t plan a birth with medical intervention.
In my understanding; “every week counts”… As in, every week that the baby gets to spend inside the mother’s uterus is beneficial to the baby. Obviously, this changes in the case of medical emergencies like pre-eclampsia, for example. And I am more than willing to go with the doctor’s advice if that were to happen. However, if there is no real reason (other than a high BMI), why should I then decide to induce labour early, or even plan a C-section there is no medical need for?
Don’t get me wrong: All the power to the women who choose to do an elective C-section. Whatever the reason, if it provides them with a calm birth, that is wonderful. Any way to birth a baby is a major shock to the female body. All of it is hard, impactful and life-changing. Just because we’re built for it, does not mean it comes easily.
In my case, though, I have said from the very beginning that my personal preference is to have a naturally occurring vaginal birth. Nobody seems to care. Since the first conversations on a birth plan (which started in week 13 for me… soooo early!!), the doctors have been pushing me towards electing a C-section.
At week 28, I’ve had the bad luck to develop gestational diabetes, Which they only told me about a whole month after getting the results. Imagine the anxiety this caused in me. A pregnant woman with a history of panic attacks. Apparently, gestational diabetes often develops in women with PCOS, which nobody in the medical team really explained to me. What I find frustrating is that there are always statistics for what they want to push on me, but never for the things that I would actually like to know more about. The doctors themselves say there is so little knowledge on gestational diabetes as well as pre-eclampsia, and what causes it. Even how to manage it well. For the latter, the main form of treatment is to get the baby out.
Due to the gestational diabetes, the medical team now has even more reason to push a planned birth on me. If I don’t want a C-section then at least it will be an induction, ideally at 38 weeks. My most recent midwife told me I might be able to hold my ground and push for a later date at 39 weeks, but only if I can really maintain my current impeccable sugar levels and the baby doesn’t grow too much. The baby’s growth though, as they tell me at every appointment, is more difficult to determine due to my high BMI. So how do they even know how big the baby has grown?
Meanwhile, I have lost weight, since becoming pregnant, due to my gestational diabetes diagnosis. I have been exercising and maintaining my sugar levels so well, I have done the opposite of what the doctors told me will happen.
I know this is a bit of an incoherent rant, and I understand that this is no individual’s fault. Not only that, but I do think we live in a broken system and pregnant women are left to their own devices far too much. There is never enough time to get full explanations, never enough time to ask all the question you’ve already forgotten with your baby brain. Pregnancy is not easy, but the system makes it even harder.
I’m not sure what I’m trying to achieve here, except to say, we all go through it and don’t really talk enough about it. The things I’ve had to learn and read up on in pregnancy astonish me. How has no woman ever mentioned this to me before? I believe this needs to change. I think that there should be so much more transparency around pregnancy and birth. Hopefully, somebody else reads this and feels seen. And even if not, writing it all down has made me feel infinitely better. Releasing this emotional tension is what it’s all about.
In the end, all will be well. I have trust in my body and my mind to cope with anything coming our way. And the baby girl kicking into my bladder as I am writing this is strong. Above all, I have faith in her.
Stay strong, Lara, you can do anything. I experienced similar frustration when I was pregnant and I am not experiencing it again in Perimenopause - no enough research and sensible medical advice on the two most important topics of female health. Which 50% of the world population potentially go through! Not even gynecologists know what they are talking about! So keep up the conversation with other women, it’s the best we can do until the system changes.