Baby By Mummy
I had another in a long line of antenatal clinic appointments this morning. As I’ve been diagnosed with diabetes in the past, they have had to treat me as a diabetic patient, despite my lack of any symptoms. My blood sugars have been pretty standard, I feel pretty good, and other than protein in my urine and some concerns about pre-eclampsia, I’ve had a super healthy pregnancy.
Unfortunately, the diabetic diagnosis has been hanging over my head for the last near-30 weeks, and I’ve been classed as “high risk” throughout. What this has meant is that all of my care has been done at the hospital with specialist consultants. It also has meant that all the plans I originally had regarding the birth (ie - water birth at home) were deemed unacceptable and off limits.
But today, a bit of good news!
The diabetes specialist at the hospital seems to AGREE with me (finally!) that it’s unlikely I am still diabetic. As I had surgery two and a half years ago which saw me lose over 100 lbs, my symptoms have pretty much vanished. I mean, just the fact that I’m pregnant should have been a tip off, as I suffered from Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome for YEARS before.
Anyway, the specialist has ordered a Glucose Tolerance Test to be performed next Sunday, which will (hopefully!) confirm that I do NOT have diabetes anymore. And if that’s the case, I can’t see any reason why they would keep me as a high risk patient!
Which in turn would mean I could start exploring the options available to me with regard home birth!!!
Since my mom’s coming to stay for the entire month of February, I think it’s definitely worth looking into. After all, she’s a nurse and has had 5 kids of her own, so if anything went wrong, she’d recognise the signs and be able to advise me off to hospital. And there will still be a midwife present to do the actual delivery and make sure all goes smoothely.
Why SHOULDN’T I have the peaceful, stress-free birth I want, after all?
Of course, this all depends on the results of the GTT, but I have a good feeling. My HBA1C came back at 4.6%. Normal range is 3.5 - 5.5, with diabetes being present at 6.5. So I’m well within the limits. As long as the GTT doesn’t bugger things up, I should be absolutely perfectly healthy!
If all comes back well, I’ll post a video of me dancing my happy dance! ;)
As for right now, I am looking forward to the last 10 weeks of pregnancy. Tomorrow, Mark and I are headed to Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot for our first antenatal class, which will teach us all we need to know about parenting in 4.5 hours. Should be interesting!
This post originated at A Mother Thing (http://www.amotherthing.com). If you want to leave a comment, please do so here: http://www.amotherthing.com/2010/12/baby-by-mummy/#comments