During our trip to San Diego for the American Diabetes Association’s Scientific Sessions, I had the pleasure of meeting with Dr. Lois Jovanovic, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer at the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute, and a pioneer in the field of diabetes and pregnancy. Although women with diabetes have been having babies for years, we’re still learning more and more about how best to do it, for optimal health of both mom and baby.
Dr. Jovanovic was kind enough to chat with us about her perspective on managing diabetes before and during pregnancy. Note that the guidelines for diabetes and pregnancy are somewhat controversial. Dr. Jovanovic happens to have stricter guidelines for pre-pregnancy A1Cs than others, who may be more flexible there (so don’t let her very-low A1C recommendation scare you).
Don’t miss Dr. Jovanovic’s advice, below, on:
- Being careful not to “under-insulin-ize” or “over-insulin-ize”
- The best advice for a woman who’s already pregnant
- When not to get behind the wheel of the car
- The “Big 5” foods to avoid to keep carb intake low
- Which tools and devices are best for pregnant women with diabetes
- Where to put sensors as your belly gets bigger and bigger
We’d also like to to note that more and more information and resources are slowly being made available for women who want to get pregnant, including Cheryl Alkon’s book Balancing Pregnancy and Pre-Existing Diabetes and programs like the California Diabetes and Pregnancy Program.
Like much in diabetes, every person is different, and we’d love to hear your thoughts on Dr. Jovanovic’s advice and your own personal experience with diabetes and pregnancy.
“this video is private”
Yeah, the video is set on private.
Well this video is not in play…. it is private please update the video link
Sorry for the delay folks – it’s open now!
I love this advice, it’s very empowering. It seems rather tough as well, but having a healthy baby as a type 1 diabetes is plain tough, no way around that.
I have type 1 and conceived twins with a 4.7 A1c which went up to 5.3 in the middle of the pregnancy. I didn’t have an endo for my pregnancy but did follow most of the advice mentioned in the video.
I ate bread, but only ezekial whole grain bread and only one slice a day. I had brown rice a few times. It’s hard to avoid those 5 foods she mentions but you know what? That was the easiest way for me to manage my sugars so I did it and for the most part still do it.
Avoiding those 5 foods helped me to only gain baby weight as I had to fill up on chicken and eggs and loads of veggies and fruit and yogurt. My babies were almost 6 pounds each and not overweight at all, they were born a month early by c-section.
At the moment my two year olds are trying to eat play-doh but other than that their perfectly fine
It can certainly be done! and many women have had healthy babies with A1c’s closer to the 7% range as well, which is good to note.
This is great advice. I am currently thirteen weeks into my first (very unplanned) pregnancy and I feel like it’s really hard to find solid, non-preachy advice. I wish I lived near this woman.
Not seeing the link to the video anywhere – where is it?
Very Nice Website & Great Article
ok… why in start people were saying video is private or it is not playing? i guess the video working just fine… right!
Thanks, as always, for the book shoutout!
–Cheryl