Diabetes & Pregnancy Services

Expert Care
If you have diabetes and are considering becoming pregnant or if you develop diabetes during pregnancy, Columbia St. Mary’s can provide the help you need. Columbia St. Mary’s Diabetes & Pregnancy Services will help you learn how to effectively manage your diabetes. By maintaining tight control of your blood sugars, you will minimize the risk of developing any diabetes related health problems for you and your baby.

Diabetes Before Pregnancy
If you’re a woman with diabetes before becoming pregnant, the key to a healthy pregnancy is to keep your blood sugar level as close to normal as possible.

Because the early weeks of pregnancy are so important to your baby, your diabetes should be under control three to six months before you become pregnant.

As your pregnancy progresses, monitoring your diabetes will require more work. Changes in your body can make symptoms of low blood glucose harder to detect. However, by maintaining your target blood glucose and with good prenatal medical care, your chances of a trouble-free pregnancy and a healthy baby are almost as good as they are for a woman without diabetes.

Gestational Diabetes
About 2-7 percent of expectant mothers develop gestational diabetes during their pregnancy. Gestational diabetes develops during pregnancy because hormones interfere with how the body uses insulin. When the pancreas can’t keep up with the insulin demand and blood glucose levels get too high, the result is gestational diabetes.

While gestational diabetes does not cause the kinds of birth defects sometimes seen in babies whose mothers had diabetes before pregnancy, if untreated it can lead to macrosomia, or a “fat” baby. Large babies can be difficult to deliver and macrosomia can affect the baby’s health later in life.

Ongoing monitoring of blood glucose along with a treatment plan is necessary to keep you and your baby healthy. Most women with gestational diabetes don’t remain diabetic once the baby is born. However, once you’ve had it, you’re at higher risk for getting it again during a future pregnancy and for developing diabetes later in life. Maintaining a healthy weight and regular exercise can reduce this risk.

The Importance of Prenatal Care
Whether you had diabetes prior to becoming pregnant or you developed gestational diabetes, it’s appropriate for your doctor to order special tests during your pregnancy to be sure the baby is developing properly.

Special tests can be done at Columbia St. Mary’s Perinatal Assessment Center (PAC)/Diabetes Treatment Center and may include fetal heart monitoring and periodic ultrasounds. The PAC also provides access to the following physicians and support services for you and your doctor:

• A perinatologist who is a doctor trained to care for high-risk pregnant women
• A neonatologist who is a doctor for newborn babies trained to handle special problems
• A registered nurse who specializes in the care of women with high-risk pregnancies

In addition to the PAC, Columbia St. Mary’s has a high-risk Antepartum and Labor & Delivery units, as well as a level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit designed to handle the most difficult and high-risk deliveries.

Services are also offered through our Diabetes Treatment Center and include:

• A registered dietitian who can adjust your meal plan as your needs change during and after pregnancy
• A diabetes educator who can teach you how to test your glucose and balance your medication, exercise and food during pregnancy

Delivery
During the last trimester of your pregnancy, and depending on the level of blood glucose control, your doctor may monitor your baby more intensively. You might also be asked to count the baby’s movements and to alert your doctor if you sense that your baby is less active.

As you near your due date, your doctor will closely monitor the size of your baby to determine if early inducement or perhaps a cesarean delivery is necessary.

To help you prepare for labor and the birth of your baby, Columbia St. Mary’s offers birthing classes, breastfeeding consultants and other support programs. You’ll learn what to expect during delivery, how to reduce pain during labor, and how to care for your baby after birth.

The classes are listed on our website at www.Columbia-stmarys.org.

After Delivery
After your baby arrives, your body begins to recover from the hard work of pregnancy and delivery. Some new mothers have better blood glucose control in the first few weeks after delivery. For some, it’s a period of odd blood glucose swings. It’s important to check your blood glucose often during this time to make appropriate changes to your medication and meal plan.

Just as your body is recovering, so is your baby’s body. Shortly after delivery, your baby’s blood sugar level will be tested by taking a drop of blood from the heel. If the baby has low blood sugar, it will be important to feed him as soon as possible. In addition, your baby may be at high-risk for jaundice.

Later in life, your child will have a higher chance of experiencing childhood and adult obesity and of developing diabetes. Therefore, you’ll want to inform your child’s doctor that you had diabetes or gestational diabetes during your pregnancy. And it’s important to provide your child with a balanced diet and encourage physical activity and a normal weight.

Services offered at our Center are available for all women in Milwaukee and surrounding communities. Appointments are by physician or self-referral. For more information, please call the Perinatal Assessment Center at (414) 291-1714.

Columbia St. Mary's
Hospital Milwaukee
Perinatal Assessment Center
2323 N. Lake Drive
Milwaukee, WI 53211
(414) 291-1714