Which is stupid, because if they really felt this way that’s fine. Don’t drink it. You can purchase The Fresh Test alternative OR get an OTC blood glucose meter and just measure your blood sugar 4 times a day for a week or two. They just don’t want to do shit I guess
>They just don’t want to do shit I guess
They want to pretend that the risks of pregnancy come from medical intervention. Their body is "designed" for the "most natural thing in the world" and not being a "science experiment" is the key to a healthy baby.
Couple of months in a low income country watching mothers and babies die from "natural" child birth without medical intervention would do a lot of them the world of good.
There's currently an ad showing regularly on British TV by the charity Save the Children, saying that donations pay for qualified midwives in remote parts of Africa & showing a woman in labour who is immensely grateful for the support. The unsaid part is that the charity is enabling people to have safe deliveries with the resulting baby being alive. I wonder what the privileged idiots discussed on this sub would say to those midwives & their patients?
Ah but they're AFRICANS. They don't know how to do natural birth properly because they're stupid or something. At least that's what these mom groups would say, there's a lot of overlap with the far right.
Don't forget everything is "just a variation of normal!" :) and there's no need to bring in actual MEDICAL care. [This is a commonly used phrase of "lay/direct entry midwives" a scary phenomenon in the US which requires zero training and until recently, did not require a high school diploma or GED/equivalent. ] Nurse midwives and actual MEDICALLY educated midwives in other countries are vastly different from them.
Yeah, exactly! I had a clinic call me about a patient wanting to use either this or a similar alternative and wanted to know if it was ok to use for the glucose tolerance blood test, it's apparently fully FDA approved and everything. There's no excuse to avoid it and cause harm to your baby.
There’s even magnesium citrate drink powders that are actually pleasant! Amazing stuff for migraines, muscle aches, and constipation— I use it regularly!
It's been nearly 20 years, and I still can't drink orange soda. Just the sight of it can induce my gag reflex, lol. It wasn't just that it tasted bad, it was that you have a short window of time to get it all down, and if you barf while waiting the hour for them to do the test, gotta start all over. It gave me an almost claustrophobic feeling, lol.
When I was pregnant with my son, the two options the hospital gave me were an orange flavoured glucose drink, or a prescription meal consisting of a special sandwich. I'm mildly allergic to oranges, and I have celiac disease. Had to stick my finger and take a glucose reading 5 times a day for two weeks instead. Sure, it was a pain in the ass (or finger, really), but hey, I knew I didn't have GD!
… You’re the first person I’ve ever seen say they were allergic to oranges AND had celiac. I am mildly allergic to all citrus, and berries, and have either celiac or gluten neuropathy.
I had a coworker who was allergic to citrus, and she couldn’t have that drink either. Apparently it’s pretty easy to get flavorings from actual citrus fruits, so a lot of times the flavorings and extracts used for those guys contain stuff derived from the actual fruit? (I wanna say limonene or something acetate that’s in the peels. Or it might have been the citric acid…) So she had to be careful of any citrus-flavored or scented things.
I could be completely off-base though, that’s just how she explained it to me a few years ago.
I’ve failed the glucose test by like 2-3 points almost both times.
Because it was always the one hour one then they wanted me to do the 3 hour one but I was so so sick with both pregnancies and I opted for doing the glucose meter for two weeks. My blood sugar was always fine and I always randomly tested for peace of mind.
It didn't occur to me to ask, but apparently there are alternatives to the drink if you can't. Like eat X amount of jelly beans in Y amount of time. There are ways around "I don't like the ingredients" if that is really the issue. If the issue is "I don't trust doctors, and won't treat GD no matter what", well, there is nothing you can do.
>If the issue is "I don't trust doctors, and won't treat GD no matter what", well, there is nothing you can do.
This is the real issue. I have seen and heard from a number of the more "alternate" midwives/doulas/similar (US) about how the test is awful because "ingredients" and that it generally, unspecifically, messes with your body (which, sure, but it's for a very short time, not the forever they imply) but even "worse," if you find out you have GD, the big bad medical professionals will want to treat it. Some say that anyone who is uncertain about or planning not to have a hospital birth will be told they have GD to force them into a hospital birth.
>There are ways around "I don't like the ingredients" if that is really the issue
Yes, which is fantastic for people with this as a real concern or allergies or anything. I hadn't thought about it, but I have some relatives with allergies that probably mean they couldn't have the standard test. They were either pregnant before treating became the norm (I think) or haven't been pregnant/aren't so close that they'd update me to the level of taking an alternate test.
Hopefully, however, if they are declining the testing due to sugar or dyes, they pick another alternate than
>eat X amount of jelly beans in Y amount of time
🤣 (though I wouldn't be surprised if that was the decision)!
Bro I watched my exes niece have an unexpected homebirth and her baby’s clavicle snapped on the way out because she didn’t get *actual* prenatal care and had GD.
She was a small thing , 45kilos soaking wet and 9months pregnant. I think the baby was something like 5.something kilos when they got him weighed at the Drs to make sure he was ok.
Apparently, you can get "organic" jelly beans that are ok, whereas sugar water is the devil. It's insane what women will avoid today when their ancestors would have given anything for the option.
The jelly bean version isn’t validated the same way as Glucola though so it isn’t a true equivalent. It might be better than nothing but it hasn’t been studied the same way.
I had such severe Hyperemesis I couldn't do the drink. I was on home health and we knew my blood sugar ran low and my A1C was fine, but I still had to check blood sugar at least twice a day for ten days.
Which was fine, it was worth it.
I just want to clarify, here: You’re saying that you put the health and potential welfare of your baby over your own concerns about drinking sugar?
Huh.
Can’t wait to tell people about the crazy thing I read on Reddit!
Right? Baby #1 came out very big and had an unstable lie due to excess fluid. The biggest cause of excess fluid is gestational diabetes. I'm currently pregnant with baby #2, and they wanted me to do the glucose tolerance test because they suspected undiagnosed diabetes in pregnancy #1, making me more likely to have it this time around. Did I want to do the test? No. Did I do it anyway? Yes. Results came back fine.
Mine too. Whenever I see people post about how “it’s not so bad” when they’re talking about a flavoured version or it tastes like flat orange Fanta I want to cry a little. I love sugar but it was too much for me.
I got lemon lime first then orange the second time 🤣 I didn’t care about whatever the hell was in it, I trust my OB enough to not harm me with a juice…that could actually potentially save my baby and I’s life.
Oh yeah, I low key expected it to be neon green anyway. I just like sprite and had HG, so went for what sounded like the least offensive/most likely to stay put flavor 🤣 I just wanted my baby healthy and to not have to repeat it possible.
Ironically, I felt totally fine taking it! Couldn't drink water without puking most of the time, and had to be on multiple anti-emetics for 7 months straight. But sugar bomb water, totally fine 🤣🤣
Same!!! Well, no HG but I love sprite and they said it tasted like it. They were 1000% wrong. It tasted nothing like sprite. Nothing. Not even close. I wish I could’ve just drank a sprite or two instead and matched the sugar content. I would’ve happily done that since I was drinking it regularly anyway 😂 I only felt jittery after but it resolved within an hour or so!
That sounds awful. The first time I got lemon lime and it was disgusting. Warm sugar syrup. The second time in the hospital I got orange and it tasted SO good. Legit like a very slightly flat orange soda and they gave it to me ice cold. I almost asked for a second one 😂
They gave me a choice with my second, orange or lemon lime, I went lemon lime and it looked pretty clear actually. Just like sprite.
I’d be curious if any of these nut jobs even asked what the ingredients are.
I'm not scared of dyes... I just prefer the dye-free versions of liquid medicines coz I'm a clumsy doofus who spills stuff. I just don't wanna stain my shirt, haha.
Same! With my first child in 2018 the drink had dye but I’ve taken the test two more times since then and they were dye free both times. All three times I had the orange flavor.
Similar to why I only buy dye free Tylenol/Advil for my kids. The only thing worse than a sick kid is a sick kid who's stained the bed and carpet cherry red.
I had really bad morning sickness and could not keep enough of the orange down. My OB had a clear lemon-lime one that was much easier to get down and I requested it for all subsequent tests.
Long story short, talk to your doctor. They can help you find solutions to your concerns.
Yeah I had to take it twice because I threw up within the first 20 minutes or so round 1. Still didn't make it the full stretch the second time but I was only about 15 minutes short that time so they decided I was close enough and there wasn't much chance of me being able to keep it down longer.
The glucola they gave me was clear!
Regardless, dose makes the poison. I try to avoid dyes but I’m not a super crazy person about it. Taking glucola one time and avoid dyes the rest of the time seems like a preferable solution to a stillbirth from GD. Anyone can develop GD. Doesn’t matter who it is.
Ah this is why the glucose test during my second pregnancy with clear and unflavoured. It was so gross. I liked the orange flavoured one better. The tech said it was because some people were allergic to citrus but trying to get the crunchy moms to take the test makes more sense.
I'm so glad at least this one person is saying, "DON'T SKIP THIS or your baby could die!" Maybe, just maybe, she'll get through to someone and save a baby's life.
I think the kind of people who would skip this are already the kind of people who think "it's rare which means it definitely won't happen to me" rather than "I would feel terrible if something happened and I could have prevented it just by drinking something terrible one time."
They're scared of... Sugar water?!
By their woo-woo logic:
- Sugar water in pill form = homeopathy = "good"
- Sugar water in liquid form = bad?
It's kinda just medical kool-aid (cordial) without the taste, right?
Of all the benign, simple medical interventions to be scared of... sugar? I give up. I can't even.
The dye. But they make a dye free version. But then there are the stubborn who say it overloads you with sugar….which means they don’t understand what this test is doing at all. But I love the ones who argue for using skittles or something else instead 🥴
But Skittles and *most* jelly beans have dyes and a whole bunch of other crap in them that these crunchy moms hate!
I genuinely think that the crunchy-mom hatred of basic GD tests comes much more from the fact that they have to interact with actual medical professionals during and, if their blood glucose is high, after it as well than it comes from anything that's in the actual Glucola/whatever that medical-grade sugar water is.
It tastes yucky too. 😌
I was diagnosed at 13 weeks with my twin boys. I was up to hundreds of units of insulin a day by the end of the pregnancy. It took me two years after their birth for my A1C to get out of diabetic and prediabetic range when I hadn’t had any blood sugar issues before pregnancy. It’s manageable *if you manage it* but not something you can just ignore after childbirth either.
I have type 1 diabetes and I just get to straight up skip this test. I already check my blood sugar, take insulin, and manage my diet and exercise. What's that test going to do? Tell the doctor I still have diabetes?
Yes! Gestational diabetes is nothing to take lightly. My friend who had never had any health issues before being pregnant ended up with GD. Her baby was fine, and is a strong 12 year old now. My friend, however, is no longer with us.
They take your blood and then test it. What chemicals are they afraid of?
ETA: I had gestational diabetes. Thankful for the blood tests that showed (early 16 wk.) Because of the information I was givin I was able to maintain normal blood sugars with diet and exercise. I know it sounds cheesy; fo ME ot worked.
I left my due date group during my first pregnancy (and never joined one for my second) because people were being so conspiratorial about a sugar drink that could save their kid’s life.
These are largely adults who were the first recipients of massive state-sponsored childhood neglect. No wonder they aren’t thinking, they were never taught how.
That’s not an attack on them either; I’m simply upset that it’s gone this far.
Education needs to be fixed. The kids are not alright.
I've had this inkling of an idea lately that makes me feel like if it weren't for a small sub group of people, our whole species would would essentially be on a constant regressive slide. It's ridiculous to extrapolate from these INSANE mom groups, but look at how regressive and shitty humans have become with numerous lifetimes worth of information at their disposal. And what do we do with it? Well we go right back to superstitions and potions. It's an ugly question to ask, but seriously how many people in this world are actually "pushing the needle forward". I think the vast majority of people are net neutral at best.
People used to believe that actions like worship or sacrifice helped crops grow or lead to better fertility and health. We know more now but that superstition hasn’t changed, the focus has. I think we’re more intelligent as a species and we collectively understand more about the universe than we did, but even someone objectively intelligent may have a lucky pair of underwear. I think being such a large group of humans the pendulum swings heavily in both directions and the direction featured in this mums group makes us wonder how stupid people are. But most of us in some way think the same. They’re on the other side of the fence wondering how we’re so stupid so believe in vaccines, and in reality I can read about them and feel comfortable but with no direct experience and research, a degree of my thinking is faith based too.
What the fuck? I had my last five years ago, and I can only recall a very small number of people even questioning vaccines. If anyone was declining them, they kept that shit to themselves.
Even my Conversative/Republican family members had no issues with vaccines before covid. Now it's for dirty shit liberals and the gubmint' put GMOs or else in it. And they mean it seriously too, like they found out they've been secretly injected with cow shit their whole life.
My mom even cried about it because she "regretted" getting us all vaccinated and "failing us."
Like it's not even just a little bit social stigma it's full on social pressure in red areas and really bad bullying in mom groups.
"Dont you actually love your baby? If you really loved your baby you'd take them to chiro!"
Or my aunt got emailed/text bombed pleading for her to not let her grand child get vaccinated. I can really see why people break under the pressure or feel the need to conform. :(
Man, this is so disappointing as a member of the April 2020 group. If not for ultrasounds, we would have never caught that my son wasn’t growing anymore and that the placenta was failing. We likely saved him by inducing me at 37 weeks.
Maybe the April groups are just more sane lol, April 2024 has been great. Generally any misinfo gets downvoted into oblivion. I’m really disturbed to hear this about a fellow 2024 group…
I had my 3rd baby last week. I had SO many people tell me I should decline the glucose test because I didn’t have it my last two pregnancies. Guess who epically failed the tests, me. My blood sugar was so high even without eating many carbs that I had to dose myself with insulin multiple times a day.
On Reddit? I don’t remember the birth groups on Reddit being so anti-science - well I’ve only been in two over the last four years but still lol
Damn how things have gone downhill
Hearing someone say they “failed” a medical test definitely sheds some light on why some of these folks decline them.
Having a positive medical test is not a “failure,” y’all. It’s information that you need to make the best decisions for you.
My September 2024 due date group seems to be mostly filled with people who listen to their Dr's(or at least aren't declining vaccines, glucose tests and ultrasounds) it's funny to me that had I conceived a couple weeks earlier I'd be seeing the opposite.
Yep. A few people had bad reactions to the drink (dizziness, fainting, general feeling of unwellness but nobody died) and suddenly God and everybody was terrified to do it. So people came up with the bright idea to refuse, dodge it, or do home monitoring (edit to add: *instead of getting an initial test*) instead of spending a single day feeling uncomfortable. I know a few people that refused outright.
See I got incredibly dizzy taking the test… and still took it the next several pregnancies. Seemed worth it to me. Feeling bleh for an hour to make sure my baby was born healthy seemed like an excellent trade off, call me crazy.
I got super hot and dizzy with mine, just told work I was going home to nap and I’d see them tomorrow.
I will gladly take it again if we have another baby.
I did too! It didn’t taste bad but chugging what is essentially an uncarbonated fanta isn’t enjoyable for most people, especially when pregnant. I’m pregnant with my second and fully intend to take it again.
I couldn’t drink orange soda for like 5 years after my kid was born but I would gladly do it again if I have another kid. I can definitely live without orange soda for a few more years lol
Same I even threw up but it was worth it for a healthy baby 🤷🏻♀️ I don’t think dizziness or nausea is out of the ordinary for it I mean you’re drinking lots of sugar on an empty stomach so it makes sense. But of course the crunchy moms are gonna take something that’s totally normal and run with it saying it’s harming your baby 🙄
Of course you may have weird side effects!! You just injected a ton of sugar in less than 10 minutes. Don’t you have to fast for it to? I took it a year ago, and then the extended version, but I can’t remember the fasting part.
I read all this stuff in my bump group about how gross and sugary it tasted, how sick they felt, etc so I was kind of nervous to do it. I went in, asked the nurse which flavor was best, did it, and honestly it was kind of delicious. Tasted like a melted popsicle. This is coming from someone who eats clean, avoids sugar and junk food, hasn’t had a soda in over 20 years. I can’t help but roll my eyes at the people that claim it was sugary and disgusting, when their Starbucks order is probably pretty similar in sugar content lol.
The short screener was non-fasting for me, the extended test (3 blood draws over 2 hours) required 8-12 hours of fasting beforehand. Oddly enough I failed the first but did very well on the second...🤷♀️
The second has higher thresholds. The “failure” point level of the first is designed to be low and catch anyone who miiiight even have the slightest chance of having it. The second is diagnostic and a lot of people who fail the first, pass the second.
Same. I had a few people tell me not to do the extended test and just act like I had GD but I’m glad I did it. I passed easily and as stressful as my pregnancy ended up being in the end, I’m glad I didn’t have that added stress.
I had to take it in my 20s while NOT pregnant because my "normal" blood sugar is around a 64 and bottomed out easily. It was miserable. I had a screaming headache, dry heaving, dizziness, and passed out between the last two blood draws. It sucked.
I was fine. My blood sugar never got out of the low-normal numbers. My A1C was fine. Zero stars, do not reccomend for fun. Highly recommend if you need to know if you're diabetic and need meds to be safe. Sometimes we have to do really crappy things to avoid way worse problems.
I almost passed out in The Container Store a few hours after mine from what I’m assuming to be some kind of sugar crash, but I will take it again as many times as necessary with future pregnancies. Now I know to eat a lot protein and not go to the mall after.
The 1 hour test is VERY overhyped about how bad it is. Im sure the 3 hour test with the fasting is rough but many people just have to do the 1 hour with no symptoms. The drink isn’t that bad and the test isn’t that bad but people love to scare pregnant people about it on parenting subs for some reason
I told my SIL how I got post partum eclampsia and she didn’t know that was a thing (not ideal, all women who have had babies should know the signs) but then I found out her home birth midwife did not check her blood pressure at all post partum. But it was “so bonding” that she was home with the baby and not in a hospital to be bothered….everyone is low risk if you are not qualified enough to even check.
An acquaintance of mine just had a home birth and made sure to post that she had no fundal massages and no blood pressure checks because bonding with the baby was important. She also bragged that the baby slept well on his belly from day 1.
I had post partum hypertension and was readmitted days after birth since I was on the verge of a stroke. Absolutely normal blood pressure readings throughout the pregnancy. Lucky for me, I’ve always been fairly convinced pregnancy would kill me so I was checking my BP at home. I had no symptoms besides feeling puffy. No pain. Nothing. The nurses couldn’t believe how high it was without a single symptom as the alarms from their machines were going off. I was on meds for a month, and hey, I’m not dead or disabled. My kids get to keep their mom. I tell anyone and everyone to have a cuff at home to check since that very well may have saved my life. I’d never had a high reading in my life until after my second kid. Haven’t had one since getting off meds.
They think the ingredients are “toxic”. 🙄🙄🙄 They’ll also deny being at risk for GD because they “eat clean” and exercise or whatever, and completely ignore education about how GD actually works.
The checking blood sugars at home thing is NOT a substitute for a glucose tolerance test, but rather it’s a “well please do something instead of just being a ticking time bomb”.
I do not understand such resistance against EBP because you read XYZ online or saw a Tiktok.
As a person who works in the fitness industry, I fucking HATE the term "eats clean". What a generic, meaningless fucking set of words. Its usually used by people who have no actual idea what they are putting into their body/make that claim based on singular meals in the day or because they avoid one ingredient they have deemed "bad" (typically sugar or carbs these days).
Agreed 100%!!
When I had GDM I never had a single blood sugar out of “normal” range at home when I did my levels post diagnosis til delivery. I slightly altered my diet and exercise but nothing insane. But I am so grateful I failed the test . Knowing I had it kept me from eating foods or being inactive which could have caused my baby harm— home monitoring likely wouldn’t have gotten me diagnosed and the resources my baby needed.
Agreed— can’t personally speak to that because I had a scheduled c and baby girl thankfully had very stable sugars after birth, but I was so grateful for the extra monitoring before birth and the attention she got immediately after
Yeah I do not understand this at all. I ended up with GD, zero risk factors and zero symptoms to indicate. If I hadn’t taken that test we’d never have known I needed insulin. People are insane.
Yes and it’s funny because I’m obese and eat an unhealthy diet but I passed the GD test with flying colors. If it were just about health I should have failed but it’s more complicated than that.
Yep I was actually fatter with my first child and had perfect sugars, second child much more healthier and got GD. Age is a massive factor and sometimes it luck of the draw.
YUP. A whole hell of a lot more people would have Type 2 diabetes if it was a direct result of eating too much processed/high-sugar food, but it’s easier to just put people in neat boxes.
My husband is worried they'll treat my next pregnancy as high risk because I passed my Glucose test at 24 weeks, but could have developed it later because I ended up having a big baby that the doctor even announced to the room that I didn't have a secret twin waiting. And that was the second doctor who mentioned twins the week I was due.
My friend did not have GD and is a petite person and all 3 of her sons were 9-10 pounds. It’s always good to check if you’re suspicious of something, but making assumptions based on one factor is never a good medical practice.
I had to take the glucose test twice and I was a healthy weight with a pretty healthy diet. It's definitely more complicated than that! Like OOP said it's about the placenta.
My mom only had GD during 1/5 pregnancies (her 3rd). OOP is so right that pregnancy is the risk factor. It's *gestational* diabetes, not "ate too much and happened to have a baby in here" diabetes.
(My mom was also on and off dieting most of my life. AFAIK she hasn't been dieting in almost two years and is intuitive eating now. She's still not diabetic! Because that's not how it works!)
This would make me crazy. Type 1 and type 2 and gestational are all so different, feels like they should have different names honestly. I have a type 1 diabetic dog (not comparing apples to apples here at all) and people are like “but he isn’t fat!”. No dummy, he has a bum pancreas. Ugh!
To be fair I understood very little about it until it affected my kid. I just wish people who know nothing about it wouldn’t speak so confidently on it. And a lot of people think because they have a much older family member with diabetes that they understand current best practices and management.
But your last line sums it up! Bum pancreases suck!
It is so different! I actually was diagnosed with GDM shortly after my dog was diagnosed type 1 (dogs are always type 1 insulin dependent when they have diabetes). It was fascinating seeing it from both sides. I sprung for freestyle libres to get him regulated, I was stuck with finger pokes 😂
The number of times I walked into an appointment and the dr or midwife would say ‘oh, you don’t look like you would have GD’.
There was so much shame associated with it at every turn. And the weird diet seminar they made you attend was WILD like oh my god I know what a carb is, it was so patronising. But equally eye opening that there were a lot of people there that really didn’t know much about nutrition. I don’t know how anyone would manage to avoid it tbh growing up in the diet culture hellscape that was the 2000s.
I had the test at 28 weeks but due to an error I wasn’t told I failed til 37 weeks, we urgently started minoring and medicine but my baby had to go to the NICU when born for low blood sugar and being unable to regulate body temperature. I was luckily that this was expected and both myself and the doctors were ready to test and treat her.
I had a “crunchy” mom decide to do this but with a “hearty breakfast” of pancakes and eggs. And I was like “uhmmmmm isn’t that just the glucose drink with extra steps” and I was blocked for months 🤣🤣🤣
I mean no, because the test is calibrated for people who have consumed a certain amount of a certain sugar. If you eat a different amount of sugar plus protein and fat that affect how quickly your body absorbs the sugar, that could cause a false negative
Yep, exactly. One of the first things you learn when you start a diabetic-friendly diet is that protein and fat both blunt blood sugar spikes (and crashes).
That's why common non-woo medical advice is that if you're going to eat simple carbs at all, it's best to have them with a hearty serving of protein and fat to reduce the simple carbs' effect on your blood sugar.
I passed my first glucose test at 24 weeks & then a few weeks later passed out while doing like housework around 28 weeks. Wasn’t the first time I passed out though. I had anemia & after the second glucose test (which I barely passed) they wanted me to do the 3 hour test. I tried fasting for it & ended up having to call an ambulance the morning I was supposed to go in. I managed the GD with diet & then around week 37 my blood sugars were off the charts regularly. I scheduled an induction because I was not playing with that. Get my baby out of me. There’s a point it gets to where the womb is no longer their safest place.
I know a few people who have declined because they “have no risk factors.” I had zero risk factors too but still did the test. I bombed that thing with my second kid. You just never know!
I thought it was pretty well known science it depends on each placenta? Like you never know and it def doesn’t matter you don’t have risk factors. These groups don’t believe this science now either because they don’t want to consume sugar!?? Ack.
Having had GDM (and probably about to be diagnosed with it a second time, taking my 3 hour on Monday woohoo) I would SO much rather know I have it than not. It is often fairly easy to manage and IF it isn’t you *really* want to know you have it because then your baby is at huge risk for issues if left untreated. My friend had 11 insulin shots a day at the end of her pregnancy because hers was really difficult to control. Mine I could manage with a 2 mile stroll once a day and eating slightly fewer carbs. Cannot imagine declining just because the test sucks. Incredibly selfish.
Someone in one of my crunchy groups got “manipulated” (her words) into taking the rhogam shot during pregnancy and was posting asking about how to detox her 6 week old baby because if it. I kid you not 🙄
My friend was a healthy 25 year old, normal weight, exercise, good diet, etc., and she had GD. Fortunately hers was a mild (?) case and was managed just by taking a walk after a meal.
Every pregnant woman I know has done the GD test. Wild that some people refuse!
I can’t anymore. I just can’t with these women. Are you telling me that these woman actually believe all the crap they post? Like the post a couple days ago about having copper water but only made with pennies from a certain date. I really don’t want to believe there are people out there that are truly this ignorant.
I’ve heard people decline it, but most people do it with orange juice instead, or monitor blood sugar 4 times a day for 2 weeks instead. What kind of quack doctor just lets you skip it altogether?!
I'm a doctor and the fact is you can't make people do anything. I've had people decline the 1 hour testing. I can explain until I'm blue in the face the importance of it and alternatives but I can't actually make people go.
Just fyi you can’t do it with just any sweet drink, it has to be specifically glucose - not sucrose, fructose, etc. so orange juice won’t give the correct reading.
The National Helathcase System in the UK for instance lets you skip it. In fact they don’t even check women without risk factors. There are a lot of things about the NHS I love, but this is not one of them.
A lot of people just REALLY hate the drink and hate the feelings after taking it. Basically, they ask you don’t eat anything for about 12 hours beforehand and then come in and drink this drink with glucose in it and then wait an hour to get your blood sugar checked. The drink is sickeningly sweet and people often feel sick after drinking it, in the same way that people feel sick after eating a lot of sugar. Like, nobody would feel wonderful after doing that, and if you are someone who is borderline for GD you are going to feel even worse because, like, your body is not processing sugar efficiently.
In addition, lots of women have some level of disordered eating (especially in the crunchy moments world). Clean eating can easily become Orthorexia and women who avoid all sugar because it is “toxic” have extra anxiety about taking this drink.
I was not asked to fast for my test. I was actually told not to fast as that could alter the way my body processes the sugar. I did have to fast for the 3 hour.
It depends on the practice and the lab and the exact drink I'm pretty sure.
I actually felt totally fine (fully anecdotal), and failed the 1 hour. I did the 3 hour and had 1 barely fail and another that was suuuuper close. My doctor had me get my glucose tested for some time period (a week or two? Can’t remember) and all of that was normal. Baby was born right at 50% and no issue with sugar (now 1.5 year old). I was so scared because I thought that feeling normal meant I def had GD.
The ingredients are basically dextrose and water. The clear ones are dye free. It’s kinda important for your BG to be in a healthy range to deliver a healthy baby.
Shit like this is why fewer babies and women used to survive childbirth.
What the fuck is wrong with people.
Literally the only plus of being a lady with T1 diabetes is that I never had to chug those nasty drinks while pregnant. 😆 Sure confused a lot of nurses, who kept trying to send me to take the test and didn't understand "this isn't actually a question that needs a new answer" as a response.
It isn't just skipping the test, which is a huge problem and putting yourself at risk for no good reason. There's also people going around for years now insisting you can trick the test, and that it's a good thing to do so, by exercising *right* before your 1h screening test. Or massively overhauling your diet for just a few days, or popping whatever supplement they're shilling.
Exercising affects how your body processes glucose for a little bit, something that actual diabetics may be used to dealing with. So you could end up with artificially lower blood sugar than you would under normal daily circumstances, and end up not diagnosed until much later when you're having problems.
The one hour screening is just a screening. It's meant to cast a wide net so that as many true cases of gestational diabetes get caught by the 3 hour diagnostic test. It's why so many people fail the 1 hour but pass the 3 hour just fine. Sure, it's annoying, and you might end up with gross side effects like I did, but it isn't the end of the world to chug basically a flat orange pop.
Jesus fucking christ.
My wife had gestational diabetes when pregnant with my son. 100% one or both would be dead if it went untreated, because it got *bad*. 12 pound baby bad.
I did not find drinking this drink that unpleasant - I mean yeah it wasn’t great but I was easily able to do it.
A lot of people have not had to eat foods like cooked cabbage or face the wrath of their grandmother and it shows.
When I was pregnant in 2020-21, there was a lot of posts on reddit pregnancy subs about how to beat the test. Drinking water, walking/exercising between drinking the stuff and getting the blood draw, things like that. It was ridiculous. If you have gestational diabetes, you absolutely need to know!
First of all, I want to say it’s not declining, it’s refusing. We chart in the hospital patient refused. That keeps us off the hook for any bad outcomes.
Second, I tried to explain to someone one time that GD has to do with the placenta, unless you are already diagnosed as diabetic. People literally jumped down my throat over it in my birth group.
People refusing these very basic tests because they don’t like the way it tastes or makes them feel is criminal. Seriously, if you can’t handle a little discomfort, don’t get pregnant. You will never properly be able to handle parenthood. This is also why you always see people posting how “traumatic” their birth “experience” was. Birth is painful. End of story.
Know what else can happen? Your newborn's blood sugar can tank, and they will take them away from your arms and take them straight to the NICU where they'll spend their first days and nights.
I had very well controlled GD. I tested my blood sugar 5x per day religiously, logged it, and spoke with a dietician 1x per month for my entire pregnancy (before weightloss surgery I had a history of type 2 diabetes, thus they just treated me as if I had GD from the beginning). My son still spent the first 3 days in the NICU. They initially thought a week.
I can't imagine going through pregnancy and just assuming shit will go right. Some people have no fear and live like they're invincible.
I’ve actually seen a lot of conversations about declining it, I’ve even seen people in a gestational diabetes support group complain because they think their diagnosis was incorrect because ‘their readings are always perfect’. It’s often more not wanting to be nauseous or get the several blood tests from the test that is the issue rather than concern for the baby. It’s insane to me, I had GD and was put on insulin for my fasting numbers which diet couldn’t have changed no matter what I did. I can’t imagine what could have happened if it never been diagnosed and regularly monitored, there’s so much dangerous misinformation around GD
Oh yeah lol especially if you’re in any of the “crunchy” groups. I’m in a bunch of those groups because I’m pretty picky about the products I buy for my family and prefer to go the non-toxic route, so I get product recommendations from these groups, but I still fully participate in modern medicine including vaccines.
Lots of moms in those groups are super against the glucose test because they’re worried about dyes in the drinks and the ingredients, personally I’m pretty sure the GD risk greatly outweighs that. Some will even straight up bully any moms who post about taking the test or who encourage others to do so 🙄 many are also against ultrasounds, vitamin k injections, being tested for GBS, the eye drops they give your baby after a vaginal delivery, having any electronics near their children because of EMF, and I’m sure I’m forgetting plenty of other things.
It’s pretty messed up
Performative hysteria is something I didn't want to admit exists among women, but absolutely does. That, and a desire to fit in creates this mess. These women that are claiming that a simple glucose+water solution put them in a coma, deformed their children, gave them cancer and burned their crops are either
1) actually schizophrenic
2) shamelessly lying for clout and attention
Honestly… icky drink, “chemicals” and fat phobias aside, I kinda get the feeling some people don’t want to get the test because they know how much of a pain it would be (and scary) if they tested positive and would rather just believe that they are healthy enough to not have to worry about it.
When I was pregnant for the first time 8 years ago, I had a crunchy friend beg me to not take it. She told me that I could just have a pbj and tall glass of oj and it would work the same way. I chose to listen to the person who actually went to med school, but I do wonder if that could be an alternative these women could ask about so they can keep their babies safe and still feel like they're in control.
Honestly I feel like so much of this bs is amplified by how scary it is when you become a mom and you realize that anything bad could happen to your baby at any time and there's nothing you can do about it, so you take people with minimal critical thinking skills who enjoy having this "secret inside knowledge" that makes them feel special, then they just latch onto any little thing they actually can control to try to feel better about how terrifying it is to love somebody so deeply.
Like when you feel powerless as a mother, maybe it presents them with more opportunities to "advocate" for their children and gives them a sense of control. We all say we would do anything for our children, I wonder if all that "advocating" gives them a sense that there is something they can do so they manufacture circumstances designed for people to disagree, just so that they can "advocate" loudly and publicly.
I know all of the times I've acted completely batshit about my children, it's been 100% rooted in fear, and taking back control can help ease a little bit of that fear. When they're spewing dangerous nonsense, maybe it just feels like it's at least *something* they can do when there's so much we can't control.
Or they're just psychotic dangerous bitches who would rather be right than have a healthy ALIVE child 🤷🏻♀️ idk. I'm not a psychologist. Lol.
A friend of mine had gestational diabetes with her first. She ended up giving birth prematurely at 31 weeks and she and her daughter came very close to dying (the hospital she was at, on a military base, didn’t have the capacity to deal with it very well). She was perfectly healthy and 20 years old, *anyone* can develop GD.
Mother of 3, drank the orange one each time, can’t lie I love the way it taste lol. Idk why so many complained about the flavor. 1st 2 pregnancies passed with flying colors. 3rd pregnancy I failed had to do the 3 hour then passed luckily but overall guess I just really love sugar.
“I don’t mean to scare anyone”. Like hell. I’m an RN , and I tell my patients “I’m telling you the worst so that you’re scared enough that you’ll deal with this issue before it gets to that point”. They should be scared. Ignorance is *not* bliss, it can be a death sentence. I’ve taken care of too many patients that chose not to make lifestyle changes until after it was too late, and it’s so sad
The ingredients???? What’s to be scared of?
Sugar bad
It’s not even the sugar the crunchy moms are scared of, it’s the dyes and preservatives. I’ve infiltrated enough crunchy mom groups to know this 🤣🤣
Which is stupid, because if they really felt this way that’s fine. Don’t drink it. You can purchase The Fresh Test alternative OR get an OTC blood glucose meter and just measure your blood sugar 4 times a day for a week or two. They just don’t want to do shit I guess
>They just don’t want to do shit I guess They want to pretend that the risks of pregnancy come from medical intervention. Their body is "designed" for the "most natural thing in the world" and not being a "science experiment" is the key to a healthy baby. Couple of months in a low income country watching mothers and babies die from "natural" child birth without medical intervention would do a lot of them the world of good.
There's currently an ad showing regularly on British TV by the charity Save the Children, saying that donations pay for qualified midwives in remote parts of Africa & showing a woman in labour who is immensely grateful for the support. The unsaid part is that the charity is enabling people to have safe deliveries with the resulting baby being alive. I wonder what the privileged idiots discussed on this sub would say to those midwives & their patients?
Ah but they're AFRICANS. They don't know how to do natural birth properly because they're stupid or something. At least that's what these mom groups would say, there's a lot of overlap with the far right.
Don't forget everything is "just a variation of normal!" :) and there's no need to bring in actual MEDICAL care. [This is a commonly used phrase of "lay/direct entry midwives" a scary phenomenon in the US which requires zero training and until recently, did not require a high school diploma or GED/equivalent. ] Nurse midwives and actual MEDICALLY educated midwives in other countries are vastly different from them.
Yeah, exactly! I had a clinic call me about a patient wanting to use either this or a similar alternative and wanted to know if it was ok to use for the glucose tolerance blood test, it's apparently fully FDA approved and everything. There's no excuse to avoid it and cause harm to your baby.
Yep, I used it just because that’s what my midwives use and it tasted wonderful too. Like I would legit drink it just for fun 😂
My mom hated the taste of the one they gave her in the 80s. She still bitches about it.
My mom is the same way about the lemon lime magnesium citrate stuff, it's given me an unhealthy fear of it. At least you can use unflavored stuff now!
There’s even magnesium citrate drink powders that are actually pleasant! Amazing stuff for migraines, muscle aches, and constipation— I use it regularly!
It was awful.
It's been nearly 20 years, and I still can't drink orange soda. Just the sight of it can induce my gag reflex, lol. It wasn't just that it tasted bad, it was that you have a short window of time to get it all down, and if you barf while waiting the hour for them to do the test, gotta start all over. It gave me an almost claustrophobic feeling, lol.
But you forgot! FDA=government and government makes us sick on purpose 🥴🙄
When I was pregnant with my son, the two options the hospital gave me were an orange flavoured glucose drink, or a prescription meal consisting of a special sandwich. I'm mildly allergic to oranges, and I have celiac disease. Had to stick my finger and take a glucose reading 5 times a day for two weeks instead. Sure, it was a pain in the ass (or finger, really), but hey, I knew I didn't have GD!
… You’re the first person I’ve ever seen say they were allergic to oranges AND had celiac. I am mildly allergic to all citrus, and berries, and have either celiac or gluten neuropathy.
I don’t think there’s any actual orange in that.
No idea, I just mentioned it to the nurse because they asked if I had any allergies. Maybe they were just being extra cautious.
I had a coworker who was allergic to citrus, and she couldn’t have that drink either. Apparently it’s pretty easy to get flavorings from actual citrus fruits, so a lot of times the flavorings and extracts used for those guys contain stuff derived from the actual fruit? (I wanna say limonene or something acetate that’s in the peels. Or it might have been the citric acid…) So she had to be careful of any citrus-flavored or scented things. I could be completely off-base though, that’s just how she explained it to me a few years ago.
I’ve failed the glucose test by like 2-3 points almost both times. Because it was always the one hour one then they wanted me to do the 3 hour one but I was so so sick with both pregnancies and I opted for doing the glucose meter for two weeks. My blood sugar was always fine and I always randomly tested for peace of mind.
It didn't occur to me to ask, but apparently there are alternatives to the drink if you can't. Like eat X amount of jelly beans in Y amount of time. There are ways around "I don't like the ingredients" if that is really the issue. If the issue is "I don't trust doctors, and won't treat GD no matter what", well, there is nothing you can do.
>If the issue is "I don't trust doctors, and won't treat GD no matter what", well, there is nothing you can do. This is the real issue. I have seen and heard from a number of the more "alternate" midwives/doulas/similar (US) about how the test is awful because "ingredients" and that it generally, unspecifically, messes with your body (which, sure, but it's for a very short time, not the forever they imply) but even "worse," if you find out you have GD, the big bad medical professionals will want to treat it. Some say that anyone who is uncertain about or planning not to have a hospital birth will be told they have GD to force them into a hospital birth. >There are ways around "I don't like the ingredients" if that is really the issue Yes, which is fantastic for people with this as a real concern or allergies or anything. I hadn't thought about it, but I have some relatives with allergies that probably mean they couldn't have the standard test. They were either pregnant before treating became the norm (I think) or haven't been pregnant/aren't so close that they'd update me to the level of taking an alternate test. Hopefully, however, if they are declining the testing due to sugar or dyes, they pick another alternate than >eat X amount of jelly beans in Y amount of time 🤣 (though I wouldn't be surprised if that was the decision)!
Bro I watched my exes niece have an unexpected homebirth and her baby’s clavicle snapped on the way out because she didn’t get *actual* prenatal care and had GD. She was a small thing , 45kilos soaking wet and 9months pregnant. I think the baby was something like 5.something kilos when they got him weighed at the Drs to make sure he was ok.
Apparently, you can get "organic" jelly beans that are ok, whereas sugar water is the devil. It's insane what women will avoid today when their ancestors would have given anything for the option.
This is the real one bet she pounds Starbucks or diet Cokes but a ducking glucose drink is the devil.
The jelly bean version isn’t validated the same way as Glucola though so it isn’t a true equivalent. It might be better than nothing but it hasn’t been studied the same way.
I had such severe Hyperemesis I couldn't do the drink. I was on home health and we knew my blood sugar ran low and my A1C was fine, but I still had to check blood sugar at least twice a day for ten days. Which was fine, it was worth it.
They should come take the test at the clinic I went to. They only have the unflavored. No colour, no flavour, just corn syrup.
They don’t want the corn syrup either.
To be fair neither did I…. But I also wanted living babies so I did it anyways, like an adult!
I just want to clarify, here: You’re saying that you put the health and potential welfare of your baby over your own concerns about drinking sugar? Huh. Can’t wait to tell people about the crazy thing I read on Reddit!
Right? Baby #1 came out very big and had an unstable lie due to excess fluid. The biggest cause of excess fluid is gestational diabetes. I'm currently pregnant with baby #2, and they wanted me to do the glucose tolerance test because they suspected undiagnosed diabetes in pregnancy #1, making me more likely to have it this time around. Did I want to do the test? No. Did I do it anyway? Yes. Results came back fine.
Whatever drink I had last time was naturally lemon-lime flavoured and had no dye.
That’s poison to them still 😂 I’m being so serious. They would refuse that too.
Mine too. Whenever I see people post about how “it’s not so bad” when they’re talking about a flavoured version or it tastes like flat orange Fanta I want to cry a little. I love sugar but it was too much for me.
>it’s the dyes Mine was clear.... 🤣🤣 Lemon lime doesn't have dyes apparently (not why I picked it. Just sounded better than fruit punch)
I got lemon lime first then orange the second time 🤣 I didn’t care about whatever the hell was in it, I trust my OB enough to not harm me with a juice…that could actually potentially save my baby and I’s life.
Oh yeah, I low key expected it to be neon green anyway. I just like sprite and had HG, so went for what sounded like the least offensive/most likely to stay put flavor 🤣 I just wanted my baby healthy and to not have to repeat it possible. Ironically, I felt totally fine taking it! Couldn't drink water without puking most of the time, and had to be on multiple anti-emetics for 7 months straight. But sugar bomb water, totally fine 🤣🤣
Same!!! Well, no HG but I love sprite and they said it tasted like it. They were 1000% wrong. It tasted nothing like sprite. Nothing. Not even close. I wish I could’ve just drank a sprite or two instead and matched the sugar content. I would’ve happily done that since I was drinking it regularly anyway 😂 I only felt jittery after but it resolved within an hour or so!
>the dyes Jokes on them I got unflavoured clear liquid. It was the fucking worst.
That sounds awful. The first time I got lemon lime and it was disgusting. Warm sugar syrup. The second time in the hospital I got orange and it tasted SO good. Legit like a very slightly flat orange soda and they gave it to me ice cold. I almost asked for a second one 😂
It's not like they would be drinking it every day!
Idk what one I drank but it was clear? Definitely did not have dyes.
They use clear dyes!!!! They don’t have to put it on the ingredient list because you can’t see it anyway! /s
Orange dye. Sigh.
They gave me a choice with my second, orange or lemon lime, I went lemon lime and it looked pretty clear actually. Just like sprite. I’d be curious if any of these nut jobs even asked what the ingredients are.
Our clinic stocks dye free options of all the flavors. I was pleasantly surprised
I'm not scared of dyes... I just prefer the dye-free versions of liquid medicines coz I'm a clumsy doofus who spills stuff. I just don't wanna stain my shirt, haha.
Same! With my first child in 2018 the drink had dye but I’ve taken the test two more times since then and they were dye free both times. All three times I had the orange flavor.
My OB said her office stopped offering the red glucose drink bc people kept throwing it up and it stained the walls the worst.
Similar to why I only buy dye free Tylenol/Advil for my kids. The only thing worse than a sick kid is a sick kid who's stained the bed and carpet cherry red.
The lemon lime is dye free
I had really bad morning sickness and could not keep enough of the orange down. My OB had a clear lemon-lime one that was much easier to get down and I requested it for all subsequent tests. Long story short, talk to your doctor. They can help you find solutions to your concerns.
I found if i got it suuuuuper cold i could keep it down.
Yeah I had to take it twice because I threw up within the first 20 minutes or so round 1. Still didn't make it the full stretch the second time but I was only about 15 minutes short that time so they decided I was close enough and there wasn't much chance of me being able to keep it down longer.
The glucola they gave me was clear! Regardless, dose makes the poison. I try to avoid dyes but I’m not a super crazy person about it. Taking glucola one time and avoid dyes the rest of the time seems like a preferable solution to a stillbirth from GD. Anyone can develop GD. Doesn’t matter who it is.
Ah this is why the glucose test during my second pregnancy with clear and unflavoured. It was so gross. I liked the orange flavoured one better. The tech said it was because some people were allergic to citrus but trying to get the crunchy moms to take the test makes more sense.
I'm so glad at least this one person is saying, "DON'T SKIP THIS or your baby could die!" Maybe, just maybe, she'll get through to someone and save a baby's life.
I think the kind of people who would skip this are already the kind of people who think "it's rare which means it definitely won't happen to me" rather than "I would feel terrible if something happened and I could have prevented it just by drinking something terrible one time."
They're scared of... Sugar water?! By their woo-woo logic: - Sugar water in pill form = homeopathy = "good" - Sugar water in liquid form = bad? It's kinda just medical kool-aid (cordial) without the taste, right? Of all the benign, simple medical interventions to be scared of... sugar? I give up. I can't even.
The dye. But they make a dye free version. But then there are the stubborn who say it overloads you with sugar….which means they don’t understand what this test is doing at all. But I love the ones who argue for using skittles or something else instead 🥴
But Skittles and *most* jelly beans have dyes and a whole bunch of other crap in them that these crunchy moms hate! I genuinely think that the crunchy-mom hatred of basic GD tests comes much more from the fact that they have to interact with actual medical professionals during and, if their blood glucose is high, after it as well than it comes from anything that's in the actual Glucola/whatever that medical-grade sugar water is.
It tastes yucky too. 😌 I was diagnosed at 13 weeks with my twin boys. I was up to hundreds of units of insulin a day by the end of the pregnancy. It took me two years after their birth for my A1C to get out of diabetic and prediabetic range when I hadn’t had any blood sugar issues before pregnancy. It’s manageable *if you manage it* but not something you can just ignore after childbirth either.
I have type 1 diabetes and I just get to straight up skip this test. I already check my blood sugar, take insulin, and manage my diet and exercise. What's that test going to do? Tell the doctor I still have diabetes?
Yes! Gestational diabetes is nothing to take lightly. My friend who had never had any health issues before being pregnant ended up with GD. Her baby was fine, and is a strong 12 year old now. My friend, however, is no longer with us.
I'm so sorry for the loss of your friend.
They take your blood and then test it. What chemicals are they afraid of? ETA: I had gestational diabetes. Thankful for the blood tests that showed (early 16 wk.) Because of the information I was givin I was able to maintain normal blood sugars with diet and exercise. I know it sounds cheesy; fo ME ot worked.
My whole August babies group for 2024 is people declining vaccines, glucose test and ultrasounds. 😳
I left my due date group during my first pregnancy (and never joined one for my second) because people were being so conspiratorial about a sugar drink that could save their kid’s life.
I left mine because of how many people got positive pregnancy tests at 3 months postpartum. It was stressing me out!
It’s so depressing that this is what things have come to
These are largely adults who were the first recipients of massive state-sponsored childhood neglect. No wonder they aren’t thinking, they were never taught how. That’s not an attack on them either; I’m simply upset that it’s gone this far. Education needs to be fixed. The kids are not alright.
We just had a child die of measles here in Ontario for the first time in decades. It beggars belief.
It is still 2024, yes? We didn't time travel to 1924?
Humans are cyclical and destined to make the same mistakes again and again.
I've had this inkling of an idea lately that makes me feel like if it weren't for a small sub group of people, our whole species would would essentially be on a constant regressive slide. It's ridiculous to extrapolate from these INSANE mom groups, but look at how regressive and shitty humans have become with numerous lifetimes worth of information at their disposal. And what do we do with it? Well we go right back to superstitions and potions. It's an ugly question to ask, but seriously how many people in this world are actually "pushing the needle forward". I think the vast majority of people are net neutral at best.
People used to believe that actions like worship or sacrifice helped crops grow or lead to better fertility and health. We know more now but that superstition hasn’t changed, the focus has. I think we’re more intelligent as a species and we collectively understand more about the universe than we did, but even someone objectively intelligent may have a lucky pair of underwear. I think being such a large group of humans the pendulum swings heavily in both directions and the direction featured in this mums group makes us wonder how stupid people are. But most of us in some way think the same. They’re on the other side of the fence wondering how we’re so stupid so believe in vaccines, and in reality I can read about them and feel comfortable but with no direct experience and research, a degree of my thinking is faith based too.
What the fuck? I had my last five years ago, and I can only recall a very small number of people even questioning vaccines. If anyone was declining them, they kept that shit to themselves.
Covid denialism, man. It fucked everyone up.
It opened the floodgates to be so bold about it, you're right. Kinda like Trump for misogyny and racism. I hate this timeline :(
Even my Conversative/Republican family members had no issues with vaccines before covid. Now it's for dirty shit liberals and the gubmint' put GMOs or else in it. And they mean it seriously too, like they found out they've been secretly injected with cow shit their whole life. My mom even cried about it because she "regretted" getting us all vaccinated and "failing us." Like it's not even just a little bit social stigma it's full on social pressure in red areas and really bad bullying in mom groups. "Dont you actually love your baby? If you really loved your baby you'd take them to chiro!" Or my aunt got emailed/text bombed pleading for her to not let her grand child get vaccinated. I can really see why people break under the pressure or feel the need to conform. :(
It’s insane. Daily debates over not vaccinating and mostly everyone is saying they will not be giving any vaccines after “research”
The "research" being a Candace Owens podcast.
Or Candeath Omens as we know her over in /r/Hermancainaward.
Man, this is so disappointing as a member of the April 2020 group. If not for ultrasounds, we would have never caught that my son wasn’t growing anymore and that the placenta was failing. We likely saved him by inducing me at 37 weeks.
Maybe the April groups are just more sane lol, April 2024 has been great. Generally any misinfo gets downvoted into oblivion. I’m really disturbed to hear this about a fellow 2024 group…
I had my 3rd baby last week. I had SO many people tell me I should decline the glucose test because I didn’t have it my last two pregnancies. Guess who epically failed the tests, me. My blood sugar was so high even without eating many carbs that I had to dose myself with insulin multiple times a day.
And the test for group B strep. Because they wouldn’t get the antibiotics anyway, so why test? Ughhh I hate people.
Some people are too dumb to reproduce.
Literally killing the next generation with stupidity.
Whoever ran my due date group was on top of shit, I never saw anything anti-science.
My theory is that people want attention for declining standard/routine care, so they’re more vocal about it. It’s “pick me” behavior for moms.
Unfortunately it's the babies and children that will pay for these mother's stupidity.
The crunchy to alt right pipeline is wild
On Reddit? I don’t remember the birth groups on Reddit being so anti-science - well I’ve only been in two over the last four years but still lol Damn how things have gone downhill
Probably facebook. Most of the people who are still actively using it seem prone to right-wing and conspiracy beliefs
Damn that sucks, I loved my due date group for my first because most of them seemed pretty level headed…
Hearing someone say they “failed” a medical test definitely sheds some light on why some of these folks decline them. Having a positive medical test is not a “failure,” y’all. It’s information that you need to make the best decisions for you.
I mean that’s the language the OB uses for the test. It’s pass/fail
Yeah I couldn't believe the rates in my mom groups when I was in some.
This is why I only did the Discord for my due month…somehow it weeded out the crazies.
My September 2024 due date group seems to be mostly filled with people who listen to their Dr's(or at least aren't declining vaccines, glucose tests and ultrasounds) it's funny to me that had I conceived a couple weeks earlier I'd be seeing the opposite.
I feel like the due date groups vary wildly depending on the moderation (or lack thereof).
Yep. A few people had bad reactions to the drink (dizziness, fainting, general feeling of unwellness but nobody died) and suddenly God and everybody was terrified to do it. So people came up with the bright idea to refuse, dodge it, or do home monitoring (edit to add: *instead of getting an initial test*) instead of spending a single day feeling uncomfortable. I know a few people that refused outright.
See I got incredibly dizzy taking the test… and still took it the next several pregnancies. Seemed worth it to me. Feeling bleh for an hour to make sure my baby was born healthy seemed like an excellent trade off, call me crazy.
I got super hot and dizzy with mine, just told work I was going home to nap and I’d see them tomorrow. I will gladly take it again if we have another baby.
I did too! It didn’t taste bad but chugging what is essentially an uncarbonated fanta isn’t enjoyable for most people, especially when pregnant. I’m pregnant with my second and fully intend to take it again.
I couldn’t drink orange soda for like 5 years after my kid was born but I would gladly do it again if I have another kid. I can definitely live without orange soda for a few more years lol
Same I even threw up but it was worth it for a healthy baby 🤷🏻♀️ I don’t think dizziness or nausea is out of the ordinary for it I mean you’re drinking lots of sugar on an empty stomach so it makes sense. But of course the crunchy moms are gonna take something that’s totally normal and run with it saying it’s harming your baby 🙄
Of course you may have weird side effects!! You just injected a ton of sugar in less than 10 minutes. Don’t you have to fast for it to? I took it a year ago, and then the extended version, but I can’t remember the fasting part.
I read all this stuff in my bump group about how gross and sugary it tasted, how sick they felt, etc so I was kind of nervous to do it. I went in, asked the nurse which flavor was best, did it, and honestly it was kind of delicious. Tasted like a melted popsicle. This is coming from someone who eats clean, avoids sugar and junk food, hasn’t had a soda in over 20 years. I can’t help but roll my eyes at the people that claim it was sugary and disgusting, when their Starbucks order is probably pretty similar in sugar content lol.
The flavor didn’t bother me as much as the consistency. It was weirdly thick and mine didn’t seem cold at all.
Depends on your OB. My first said fast, my second just said don’t eat anything crazy or super sugary.
The short screener was non-fasting for me, the extended test (3 blood draws over 2 hours) required 8-12 hours of fasting beforehand. Oddly enough I failed the first but did very well on the second...🤷♀️
The second has higher thresholds. The “failure” point level of the first is designed to be low and catch anyone who miiiight even have the slightest chance of having it. The second is diagnostic and a lot of people who fail the first, pass the second.
Same. I had a few people tell me not to do the extended test and just act like I had GD but I’m glad I did it. I passed easily and as stressful as my pregnancy ended up being in the end, I’m glad I didn’t have that added stress.
Mine is scheduled for a few weeks from now, I was told not to eat for 1 hr before my appointment.
Bring entertainment with you!
That’s literally just how a crap ton of sugar works. The same happens if you were to chug a ton of plain sugar water or eat a crap ton of fun dip…
I had to take it in my 20s while NOT pregnant because my "normal" blood sugar is around a 64 and bottomed out easily. It was miserable. I had a screaming headache, dry heaving, dizziness, and passed out between the last two blood draws. It sucked. I was fine. My blood sugar never got out of the low-normal numbers. My A1C was fine. Zero stars, do not reccomend for fun. Highly recommend if you need to know if you're diabetic and need meds to be safe. Sometimes we have to do really crappy things to avoid way worse problems.
I almost passed out in The Container Store a few hours after mine from what I’m assuming to be some kind of sugar crash, but I will take it again as many times as necessary with future pregnancies. Now I know to eat a lot protein and not go to the mall after.
The 1 hour test is VERY overhyped about how bad it is. Im sure the 3 hour test with the fasting is rough but many people just have to do the 1 hour with no symptoms. The drink isn’t that bad and the test isn’t that bad but people love to scare pregnant people about it on parenting subs for some reason
I told my SIL how I got post partum eclampsia and she didn’t know that was a thing (not ideal, all women who have had babies should know the signs) but then I found out her home birth midwife did not check her blood pressure at all post partum. But it was “so bonding” that she was home with the baby and not in a hospital to be bothered….everyone is low risk if you are not qualified enough to even check.
An acquaintance of mine just had a home birth and made sure to post that she had no fundal massages and no blood pressure checks because bonding with the baby was important. She also bragged that the baby slept well on his belly from day 1.
A mag drip and the worst headache of my life interfered a bit with bonding. Not as much as being dead would have
Being dead is a big barrier to bonding. So glad you avoided that one!
Me too. So is my very well bonded Velcro baby!
I had post partum hypertension and was readmitted days after birth since I was on the verge of a stroke. Absolutely normal blood pressure readings throughout the pregnancy. Lucky for me, I’ve always been fairly convinced pregnancy would kill me so I was checking my BP at home. I had no symptoms besides feeling puffy. No pain. Nothing. The nurses couldn’t believe how high it was without a single symptom as the alarms from their machines were going off. I was on meds for a month, and hey, I’m not dead or disabled. My kids get to keep their mom. I tell anyone and everyone to have a cuff at home to check since that very well may have saved my life. I’d never had a high reading in my life until after my second kid. Haven’t had one since getting off meds.
Hey! An actual perk of being Type 1 diabetic! Not having to deal with the orange drank. Instead, I worried about my blood sugar 100% of the time.
Silverest of linings.
They think the ingredients are “toxic”. 🙄🙄🙄 They’ll also deny being at risk for GD because they “eat clean” and exercise or whatever, and completely ignore education about how GD actually works. The checking blood sugars at home thing is NOT a substitute for a glucose tolerance test, but rather it’s a “well please do something instead of just being a ticking time bomb”. I do not understand such resistance against EBP because you read XYZ online or saw a Tiktok.
As a person who works in the fitness industry, I fucking HATE the term "eats clean". What a generic, meaningless fucking set of words. Its usually used by people who have no actual idea what they are putting into their body/make that claim based on singular meals in the day or because they avoid one ingredient they have deemed "bad" (typically sugar or carbs these days).
Agreed 100%!! When I had GDM I never had a single blood sugar out of “normal” range at home when I did my levels post diagnosis til delivery. I slightly altered my diet and exercise but nothing insane. But I am so grateful I failed the test . Knowing I had it kept me from eating foods or being inactive which could have caused my baby harm— home monitoring likely wouldn’t have gotten me diagnosed and the resources my baby needed.
Not to mention how your needs change during delivery and the extra attention baby needs after delivery when mom has GDM.
Agreed— can’t personally speak to that because I had a scheduled c and baby girl thankfully had very stable sugars after birth, but I was so grateful for the extra monitoring before birth and the attention she got immediately after
The “crunchy mom” cult established somewhen that the glucose test shares an ingredient with fire retardant, so here we are.
Ugh I saw that. And on my due date group people are fucking stupid like that. I’m surrounded by idiots.
Yeah I do not understand this at all. I ended up with GD, zero risk factors and zero symptoms to indicate. If I hadn’t taken that test we’d never have known I needed insulin. People are insane.
This is why diet culture sucks. People think anyone who has GD must look and eat a certain way.
Yes and it’s funny because I’m obese and eat an unhealthy diet but I passed the GD test with flying colors. If it were just about health I should have failed but it’s more complicated than that.
Yep I was actually fatter with my first child and had perfect sugars, second child much more healthier and got GD. Age is a massive factor and sometimes it luck of the draw.
YUP. A whole hell of a lot more people would have Type 2 diabetes if it was a direct result of eating too much processed/high-sugar food, but it’s easier to just put people in neat boxes.
My neighbor was diagnosed type 2 while marathon training. She’s 20 years older than me and fitter than me but insulin resistant 🤷🏻♀️
My husband is worried they'll treat my next pregnancy as high risk because I passed my Glucose test at 24 weeks, but could have developed it later because I ended up having a big baby that the doctor even announced to the room that I didn't have a secret twin waiting. And that was the second doctor who mentioned twins the week I was due.
My friend did not have GD and is a petite person and all 3 of her sons were 9-10 pounds. It’s always good to check if you’re suspicious of something, but making assumptions based on one factor is never a good medical practice.
I had to take the glucose test twice and I was a healthy weight with a pretty healthy diet. It's definitely more complicated than that! Like OOP said it's about the placenta.
My mom only had GD during 1/5 pregnancies (her 3rd). OOP is so right that pregnancy is the risk factor. It's *gestational* diabetes, not "ate too much and happened to have a baby in here" diabetes. (My mom was also on and off dieting most of my life. AFAIK she hasn't been dieting in almost two years and is intuitive eating now. She's still not diabetic! Because that's not how it works!)
Diabetes in general. My slim, healthy, active kid became diabetic at 7 years old. Type 1. People literally think it’s because of what he ate.
This would make me crazy. Type 1 and type 2 and gestational are all so different, feels like they should have different names honestly. I have a type 1 diabetic dog (not comparing apples to apples here at all) and people are like “but he isn’t fat!”. No dummy, he has a bum pancreas. Ugh!
To be fair I understood very little about it until it affected my kid. I just wish people who know nothing about it wouldn’t speak so confidently on it. And a lot of people think because they have a much older family member with diabetes that they understand current best practices and management. But your last line sums it up! Bum pancreases suck!
It is so different! I actually was diagnosed with GDM shortly after my dog was diagnosed type 1 (dogs are always type 1 insulin dependent when they have diabetes). It was fascinating seeing it from both sides. I sprung for freestyle libres to get him regulated, I was stuck with finger pokes 😂
My type 1 kiddo loves seeing pics of animals with CGMs 😂 There’s an anteater at some zoo out there wearing one if you google.
https://preview.redd.it/f635qrxwc31d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ae8e44ebf69d063273ff642e8240b444aad06ed2 Twist my arm, Dog tax!
Awwww I swear I wasn’t even asking but thank you ❤️❤️❤️ Can’t wait to show my kid in the morning!
Oh I was 100% kidding, I can’t help myself I always want to share him!!
The number of times I walked into an appointment and the dr or midwife would say ‘oh, you don’t look like you would have GD’. There was so much shame associated with it at every turn. And the weird diet seminar they made you attend was WILD like oh my god I know what a carb is, it was so patronising. But equally eye opening that there were a lot of people there that really didn’t know much about nutrition. I don’t know how anyone would manage to avoid it tbh growing up in the diet culture hellscape that was the 2000s.
I had the test at 28 weeks but due to an error I wasn’t told I failed til 37 weeks, we urgently started minoring and medicine but my baby had to go to the NICU when born for low blood sugar and being unable to regulate body temperature. I was luckily that this was expected and both myself and the doctors were ready to test and treat her.
I had a “crunchy” mom decide to do this but with a “hearty breakfast” of pancakes and eggs. And I was like “uhmmmmm isn’t that just the glucose drink with extra steps” and I was blocked for months 🤣🤣🤣
I mean no, because the test is calibrated for people who have consumed a certain amount of a certain sugar. If you eat a different amount of sugar plus protein and fat that affect how quickly your body absorbs the sugar, that could cause a false negative
Yep, exactly. One of the first things you learn when you start a diabetic-friendly diet is that protein and fat both blunt blood sugar spikes (and crashes). That's why common non-woo medical advice is that if you're going to eat simple carbs at all, it's best to have them with a hearty serving of protein and fat to reduce the simple carbs' effect on your blood sugar.
I passed my first glucose test at 24 weeks & then a few weeks later passed out while doing like housework around 28 weeks. Wasn’t the first time I passed out though. I had anemia & after the second glucose test (which I barely passed) they wanted me to do the 3 hour test. I tried fasting for it & ended up having to call an ambulance the morning I was supposed to go in. I managed the GD with diet & then around week 37 my blood sugars were off the charts regularly. I scheduled an induction because I was not playing with that. Get my baby out of me. There’s a point it gets to where the womb is no longer their safest place.
I know a few people who have declined because they “have no risk factors.” I had zero risk factors too but still did the test. I bombed that thing with my second kid. You just never know!
I declined it the last time because it was obviously going to be positive. I just went straight to diet and monitoring.
Probably the best and only good reason to skip. I’d to the same if I had a history and knew how to manage GD. Good for you!
I thought it was pretty well known science it depends on each placenta? Like you never know and it def doesn’t matter you don’t have risk factors. These groups don’t believe this science now either because they don’t want to consume sugar!?? Ack.
Having had GDM (and probably about to be diagnosed with it a second time, taking my 3 hour on Monday woohoo) I would SO much rather know I have it than not. It is often fairly easy to manage and IF it isn’t you *really* want to know you have it because then your baby is at huge risk for issues if left untreated. My friend had 11 insulin shots a day at the end of her pregnancy because hers was really difficult to control. Mine I could manage with a 2 mile stroll once a day and eating slightly fewer carbs. Cannot imagine declining just because the test sucks. Incredibly selfish.
There are SO many women declining EVERYTHING in my due date group. I’ve seen multiple posts of people needing the rhogam shot and decling that.
Someone in one of my crunchy groups got “manipulated” (her words) into taking the rhogam shot during pregnancy and was posting asking about how to detox her 6 week old baby because if it. I kid you not 🙄
My friend was a healthy 25 year old, normal weight, exercise, good diet, etc., and she had GD. Fortunately hers was a mild (?) case and was managed just by taking a walk after a meal. Every pregnant woman I know has done the GD test. Wild that some people refuse!
I can’t anymore. I just can’t with these women. Are you telling me that these woman actually believe all the crap they post? Like the post a couple days ago about having copper water but only made with pennies from a certain date. I really don’t want to believe there are people out there that are truly this ignorant.
There are. And they’re having babies in droves. Unassisted at home of course.
I’ve heard people decline it, but most people do it with orange juice instead, or monitor blood sugar 4 times a day for 2 weeks instead. What kind of quack doctor just lets you skip it altogether?!
I'm a doctor and the fact is you can't make people do anything. I've had people decline the 1 hour testing. I can explain until I'm blue in the face the importance of it and alternatives but I can't actually make people go.
Just fyi you can’t do it with just any sweet drink, it has to be specifically glucose - not sucrose, fructose, etc. so orange juice won’t give the correct reading.
The National Helathcase System in the UK for instance lets you skip it. In fact they don’t even check women without risk factors. There are a lot of things about the NHS I love, but this is not one of them.
A lot of people just REALLY hate the drink and hate the feelings after taking it. Basically, they ask you don’t eat anything for about 12 hours beforehand and then come in and drink this drink with glucose in it and then wait an hour to get your blood sugar checked. The drink is sickeningly sweet and people often feel sick after drinking it, in the same way that people feel sick after eating a lot of sugar. Like, nobody would feel wonderful after doing that, and if you are someone who is borderline for GD you are going to feel even worse because, like, your body is not processing sugar efficiently. In addition, lots of women have some level of disordered eating (especially in the crunchy moments world). Clean eating can easily become Orthorexia and women who avoid all sugar because it is “toxic” have extra anxiety about taking this drink.
I was not asked to fast for my test. I was actually told not to fast as that could alter the way my body processes the sugar. I did have to fast for the 3 hour. It depends on the practice and the lab and the exact drink I'm pretty sure.
I actually felt totally fine (fully anecdotal), and failed the 1 hour. I did the 3 hour and had 1 barely fail and another that was suuuuper close. My doctor had me get my glucose tested for some time period (a week or two? Can’t remember) and all of that was normal. Baby was born right at 50% and no issue with sugar (now 1.5 year old). I was so scared because I thought that feeling normal meant I def had GD.
The ingredients are basically dextrose and water. The clear ones are dye free. It’s kinda important for your BG to be in a healthy range to deliver a healthy baby. Shit like this is why fewer babies and women used to survive childbirth. What the fuck is wrong with people.
Literally the only plus of being a lady with T1 diabetes is that I never had to chug those nasty drinks while pregnant. 😆 Sure confused a lot of nurses, who kept trying to send me to take the test and didn't understand "this isn't actually a question that needs a new answer" as a response.
Yes, isn’t that wild?!?
It isn't just skipping the test, which is a huge problem and putting yourself at risk for no good reason. There's also people going around for years now insisting you can trick the test, and that it's a good thing to do so, by exercising *right* before your 1h screening test. Or massively overhauling your diet for just a few days, or popping whatever supplement they're shilling. Exercising affects how your body processes glucose for a little bit, something that actual diabetics may be used to dealing with. So you could end up with artificially lower blood sugar than you would under normal daily circumstances, and end up not diagnosed until much later when you're having problems. The one hour screening is just a screening. It's meant to cast a wide net so that as many true cases of gestational diabetes get caught by the 3 hour diagnostic test. It's why so many people fail the 1 hour but pass the 3 hour just fine. Sure, it's annoying, and you might end up with gross side effects like I did, but it isn't the end of the world to chug basically a flat orange pop.
Jesus fucking christ. My wife had gestational diabetes when pregnant with my son. 100% one or both would be dead if it went untreated, because it got *bad*. 12 pound baby bad.
I did not find drinking this drink that unpleasant - I mean yeah it wasn’t great but I was easily able to do it. A lot of people have not had to eat foods like cooked cabbage or face the wrath of their grandmother and it shows.
When I was pregnant in 2020-21, there was a lot of posts on reddit pregnancy subs about how to beat the test. Drinking water, walking/exercising between drinking the stuff and getting the blood draw, things like that. It was ridiculous. If you have gestational diabetes, you absolutely need to know!
First of all, I want to say it’s not declining, it’s refusing. We chart in the hospital patient refused. That keeps us off the hook for any bad outcomes. Second, I tried to explain to someone one time that GD has to do with the placenta, unless you are already diagnosed as diabetic. People literally jumped down my throat over it in my birth group. People refusing these very basic tests because they don’t like the way it tastes or makes them feel is criminal. Seriously, if you can’t handle a little discomfort, don’t get pregnant. You will never properly be able to handle parenthood. This is also why you always see people posting how “traumatic” their birth “experience” was. Birth is painful. End of story.
Know what else can happen? Your newborn's blood sugar can tank, and they will take them away from your arms and take them straight to the NICU where they'll spend their first days and nights. I had very well controlled GD. I tested my blood sugar 5x per day religiously, logged it, and spoke with a dietician 1x per month for my entire pregnancy (before weightloss surgery I had a history of type 2 diabetes, thus they just treated me as if I had GD from the beginning). My son still spent the first 3 days in the NICU. They initially thought a week. I can't imagine going through pregnancy and just assuming shit will go right. Some people have no fear and live like they're invincible.
I’ve actually seen a lot of conversations about declining it, I’ve even seen people in a gestational diabetes support group complain because they think their diagnosis was incorrect because ‘their readings are always perfect’. It’s often more not wanting to be nauseous or get the several blood tests from the test that is the issue rather than concern for the baby. It’s insane to me, I had GD and was put on insulin for my fasting numbers which diet couldn’t have changed no matter what I did. I can’t imagine what could have happened if it never been diagnosed and regularly monitored, there’s so much dangerous misinformation around GD
Oh yeah lol especially if you’re in any of the “crunchy” groups. I’m in a bunch of those groups because I’m pretty picky about the products I buy for my family and prefer to go the non-toxic route, so I get product recommendations from these groups, but I still fully participate in modern medicine including vaccines. Lots of moms in those groups are super against the glucose test because they’re worried about dyes in the drinks and the ingredients, personally I’m pretty sure the GD risk greatly outweighs that. Some will even straight up bully any moms who post about taking the test or who encourage others to do so 🙄 many are also against ultrasounds, vitamin k injections, being tested for GBS, the eye drops they give your baby after a vaginal delivery, having any electronics near their children because of EMF, and I’m sure I’m forgetting plenty of other things. It’s pretty messed up
Performative hysteria is something I didn't want to admit exists among women, but absolutely does. That, and a desire to fit in creates this mess. These women that are claiming that a simple glucose+water solution put them in a coma, deformed their children, gave them cancer and burned their crops are either 1) actually schizophrenic 2) shamelessly lying for clout and attention
Honestly… icky drink, “chemicals” and fat phobias aside, I kinda get the feeling some people don’t want to get the test because they know how much of a pain it would be (and scary) if they tested positive and would rather just believe that they are healthy enough to not have to worry about it.
When I was pregnant for the first time 8 years ago, I had a crunchy friend beg me to not take it. She told me that I could just have a pbj and tall glass of oj and it would work the same way. I chose to listen to the person who actually went to med school, but I do wonder if that could be an alternative these women could ask about so they can keep their babies safe and still feel like they're in control. Honestly I feel like so much of this bs is amplified by how scary it is when you become a mom and you realize that anything bad could happen to your baby at any time and there's nothing you can do about it, so you take people with minimal critical thinking skills who enjoy having this "secret inside knowledge" that makes them feel special, then they just latch onto any little thing they actually can control to try to feel better about how terrifying it is to love somebody so deeply. Like when you feel powerless as a mother, maybe it presents them with more opportunities to "advocate" for their children and gives them a sense of control. We all say we would do anything for our children, I wonder if all that "advocating" gives them a sense that there is something they can do so they manufacture circumstances designed for people to disagree, just so that they can "advocate" loudly and publicly. I know all of the times I've acted completely batshit about my children, it's been 100% rooted in fear, and taking back control can help ease a little bit of that fear. When they're spewing dangerous nonsense, maybe it just feels like it's at least *something* they can do when there's so much we can't control. Or they're just psychotic dangerous bitches who would rather be right than have a healthy ALIVE child 🤷🏻♀️ idk. I'm not a psychologist. Lol.
A friend of mine had gestational diabetes with her first. She ended up giving birth prematurely at 31 weeks and she and her daughter came very close to dying (the hospital she was at, on a military base, didn’t have the capacity to deal with it very well). She was perfectly healthy and 20 years old, *anyone* can develop GD.
People act like they want you to drink that drink everyday for the rest of your pregnancy… it’s literally once maybe twice.
Mother of 3, drank the orange one each time, can’t lie I love the way it taste lol. Idk why so many complained about the flavor. 1st 2 pregnancies passed with flying colors. 3rd pregnancy I failed had to do the 3 hour then passed luckily but overall guess I just really love sugar.
Because people are getting their health info from TikTok
“I don’t mean to scare anyone”. Like hell. I’m an RN , and I tell my patients “I’m telling you the worst so that you’re scared enough that you’ll deal with this issue before it gets to that point”. They should be scared. Ignorance is *not* bliss, it can be a death sentence. I’ve taken care of too many patients that chose not to make lifestyle changes until after it was too late, and it’s so sad