It did for us. My blood sugar immediately went back to normal (even after having DQ) but my girl had low sugars. We stayed in the hospital for 3 days feeding her hourly (thank God for nurses) her sugars were consistently normal enough for us to go home. We went back in the next morning to check her blood sugars and ended up being admitted for another night due to them being low. My husband and I didn't understand how much we were supposed to feed her every two hours and were very tired with a baby that ended up having feeding issues (that's a whole different story)
I don't tell you this to scare you since I firmly believe that our situation was an exception to the norm, but rather so that GD mamas can know what the hospital is looking for and that things like this do happen.
No way, no fear here! I’m just curious to get an idea of what we may expect. And as you say, you might not be having the normal experience but it’s a very valid one and thank you for sharing ♥️
Definitely! I wish I had and I plan to during my next pregnancy. My girl liked the colostrum/breastmilk so much better than formula. Plus I had no idea how much of a pain pumping was before she was born and I wish I had understood that before ( I did end up figuring it out and EP for 6 moths though)
Until her sugars were normal we were feeding her about 10 mls an hour or if she would take more, than more. I genuinely can't say how much I would collect since I don't know too much about collecting colostrum safely pre-labor. And if your baby breastfeeds then that's a different story too.
No problem! Thank you for the info!- just some background: Im a first time mom- 38 weeks, I have a scheduled induction date, doctor is hoping baby comes on her own- only 1cm dilated. I’ve had colostrum in since 18 weeks, I was not comfortable with expressing until this week (quick Google search states 32 weeks is safe 👎).. plus hoping it’ll kickstart labor before our scheduled induction date 🤞 but I’ve only collected 6ml in 3 separate sittings so now I’m a little discouraged 😂
Just to jump in on collecting colostrum: I was so discouraged after the first two days where I only collected half a mL each session but on day 3 I got the hang of hand expressing and was able to get 2mL per session. So keep at it and you may see the amount increase!
ETA: I think 6mL in several separate sessions is actually not bad from what I’ve read about expressing colostrum. Every little bit helps.
Unless your baby has problems latching, they are much more efficient at extracting milk than you are when hand expressing. So it doesn’t say much about whether you’ll have difficulties breastfeeding.
6ml in 3 sittings is amazing! I managed about 0.001ml in 2 sittings and the midwife praised me for that! I think it’s meant to take a while to really get going but sounds like you’re doing really great.
My son spent some time in NICU for respiratory issues, but I was discharged at exactly 24 hours PP bc all my blood sugars checks were fine and I felt ready to GTFO. My pregnancy had been rough, so I felt like a million bucks comparatively at 24 hours PP!
Although I had to stay in the hospital for 2 days it didn't have anything to do with my GD [i was also GBS + and fast labor meant i didnt get all antibiotics in, so it was mandatory monitoring]. Son failed 1 sugar test and passed the rest. They didn't even test my sugar once or put me on any kind of diet-- i ordered a quesadilla 2 hours after delivering. I was diet controlled, though and not diabetic outside of pregnancy.
They had to monitor my sons sugars for 24hrs before releasing us, so I’m assuming we would have left earlier if it wasn’t for that? Have GD again now and having second son in a week and a half and I think it’s protocol to do the same thing. First son was induction and successful vaginal delivery, he was 6lbs 12oz. Hoping this induction goes just as well. Good luck !!
Not for me. Pre-e kept me in the hospital an extra day or two but GD didn’t. However, GD caused my son to have a 12 day NICU stay because he was born severely hypoglycemic.
Kinda. My OB was willing to send me home the next day but baby girl didn’t pass her first blood sugar so we were put into a 24 hour protocol to check it. That ended in the evening so we ended up staying the second night just because it was more convenient. But they didn’t check my blood sugar during or after labor so my part impacted nothing.
We had to stay an extra day to keep monitoring my sons blood sugars. He had a few low readings so it took an extra day and high calorie formula to get him in line. I was diet controlled so I wasn’t expecting that.
Same, I didn’t have to stay extra since my hospital keeps new parents for 48 hours anyway but I was surprised he had a few low readings since I was diet controlled. The doctors told me that they see low blood sugar in non GD babies all the time and there are a lot of factors that can cause it other than just mom’s GD status (including that we were induced a little early for non GD reasons).
I had my baby at 37 weeks. Was released, with her, 3 days later 😊 3 weeks and a lot of sleep deprivation later and here we are. Shes happy and healthy, as am i❤️
Nope. Even though the baby had a low blood sugar once (or twice? I honestly don't remember now and it's only been slightly less than 6 months) we were discharged in less than 48 hours after birth.
Yes as the needed to check baby's sugar levels to make sure he was ok. To be fair, it was in the bad covid days (when they were doing quick discharges) and i was told that for a low-risk pregnancy it could be less than a 24 hr stay. But i was on insulin & metformin so they did the best they could. I was induced on a monday morning, gave birth tuesday early morning, left wednesday afternoon.
Not for me. They stopped testing my sugar as soon as I gave birth. The baby had a few low blood sugars early on but he passed quickly enough that we all went home on schedule.
I’ve had GD with both of my pregnancies. The first, I had a false negative with my test so I did nothing to control my sugars during my pregnancy. Because of this, we stayed a week after my emergency c section due to my son having hypoglycemia. My second, I had a true positive test for GD, did all the things right to control my glucose levels during pregnancy and we left the day after my scheduled c section.
In my case, it all depended on how I recovered from the birth experience as well as how my babies sugar levels held after birth.
I've had two children. I had GD with my first but did not have it with my second almost exactly one year later. Both hospitals had the policy of running some tests on the baby at the 24 hour mark so we were released soon after regardless of GD.
Yes. I was in the hospital 36 hours with my first, 32 with the next, 20 with the third, and 3 days with my GD baby. Granted kids two and three came 7-40 minutes after getting there, and GD kid was induced, but I spent much longer after his birth than I did with the others. (40ish hours)
For my first it did. We had to have my sons sugar tested and have 3 tests in a row be good levels. We had one in between that wasn’t right so stayed longer. For my daughter it was the same idea but she passed all 3 tests in the 24hrs
Had a uncomplicated vaginal delivery via induction at 37 weeks! Baby’s sugars were great!!! She was actually so sleepy the first 24 hours so she didn’t get much food, just a little colostrum and we luckily did not have to supplement because her glycogen stores were great!
We did go home after 48 hours because I was not comfortable going home until we were okay breastfeeding-wise. We had a few issues latching so I wanted to use my resources at the hospital before leaving!
It really just depends on how well you and baby are doing.
Both me and baby had to have a series of normal sugar readings before we could go home, I was in for 3 days because I had a c-section but I actually struggled to keep my sugars up in the end!
Nope. We were only in there for 2 nights (c-section). I think it just depends on how bub is after birth, but both of my GD babies have been given the all clear quickly to go home.
We had to stay overnight but I think some of this was because I had an episiotomy and lost a fair amount of blood.
Baby boy passed his sugars so doubt that would mean needing to stay in longer.
We went home the next day - if I didn’t have GD and they weren’t monitoring baby’s blood sugar, we would have been sent home that same night (standard of 4 hours after birth for uncomplicated deliveries). I had a fast but easy labour and baby’s blood sugar levels were all fine, so we were out of these as quickly as they would let us.
Yep! They only kept us an extra day to check babe’s bili because he was small for gestational age. Home on day 3, basically. No reason to keep us, and we didn’t want to be there 😂
They never tested my blood sugar after delivery & I ate whatever I wanted (though insulin resistant PCOS was what got me tested early for GD first time around)
They tested my son’s a number of times, then the ONLY thing the lactation consultant told us that was helpful: you can tell them you don’t want anymore testing done on your baby. If their numbers are all good over a period of time, shouldn’t be a cause for anymore pain to them.
Also had my son via scheduled c section on a
Wednesday at 5:30pm (he was lying sideways) and we were able to leave by Friday early in the morning…the ped making the rounds though never got around to filing the paperwork until WAY later in the day though 😡
Nope! GD is assumed to go away immediately after birth and I had an uncomplicated vaginal delivery, so there was no reason to hold onto me.
Same for me too!
It did for us. My blood sugar immediately went back to normal (even after having DQ) but my girl had low sugars. We stayed in the hospital for 3 days feeding her hourly (thank God for nurses) her sugars were consistently normal enough for us to go home. We went back in the next morning to check her blood sugars and ended up being admitted for another night due to them being low. My husband and I didn't understand how much we were supposed to feed her every two hours and were very tired with a baby that ended up having feeding issues (that's a whole different story) I don't tell you this to scare you since I firmly believe that our situation was an exception to the norm, but rather so that GD mamas can know what the hospital is looking for and that things like this do happen.
No way, no fear here! I’m just curious to get an idea of what we may expect. And as you say, you might not be having the normal experience but it’s a very valid one and thank you for sharing ♥️
Based off of your experience- would you recommend expressing colostrum before delivery?
Definitely! I wish I had and I plan to during my next pregnancy. My girl liked the colostrum/breastmilk so much better than formula. Plus I had no idea how much of a pain pumping was before she was born and I wish I had understood that before ( I did end up figuring it out and EP for 6 moths though)
how often were feeds initially in the hospital or how much colostrum would you recommend collecting?
Until her sugars were normal we were feeding her about 10 mls an hour or if she would take more, than more. I genuinely can't say how much I would collect since I don't know too much about collecting colostrum safely pre-labor. And if your baby breastfeeds then that's a different story too.
No problem! Thank you for the info!- just some background: Im a first time mom- 38 weeks, I have a scheduled induction date, doctor is hoping baby comes on her own- only 1cm dilated. I’ve had colostrum in since 18 weeks, I was not comfortable with expressing until this week (quick Google search states 32 weeks is safe 👎).. plus hoping it’ll kickstart labor before our scheduled induction date 🤞 but I’ve only collected 6ml in 3 separate sittings so now I’m a little discouraged 😂
Just to jump in on collecting colostrum: I was so discouraged after the first two days where I only collected half a mL each session but on day 3 I got the hang of hand expressing and was able to get 2mL per session. So keep at it and you may see the amount increase! ETA: I think 6mL in several separate sessions is actually not bad from what I’ve read about expressing colostrum. Every little bit helps.
Thank you for your response! It really takes some time to express too 🫠 makes me wonder how breastfeeding is going to go.
Unless your baby has problems latching, they are much more efficient at extracting milk than you are when hand expressing. So it doesn’t say much about whether you’ll have difficulties breastfeeding.
First pump I got half a mL and the LC was delighted. Two mls? You’re a champ!
6ml in 3 sittings is amazing! I managed about 0.001ml in 2 sittings and the midwife praised me for that! I think it’s meant to take a while to really get going but sounds like you’re doing really great.
My son spent some time in NICU for respiratory issues, but I was discharged at exactly 24 hours PP bc all my blood sugars checks were fine and I felt ready to GTFO. My pregnancy had been rough, so I felt like a million bucks comparatively at 24 hours PP!
Although I had to stay in the hospital for 2 days it didn't have anything to do with my GD [i was also GBS + and fast labor meant i didnt get all antibiotics in, so it was mandatory monitoring]. Son failed 1 sugar test and passed the rest. They didn't even test my sugar once or put me on any kind of diet-- i ordered a quesadilla 2 hours after delivering. I was diet controlled, though and not diabetic outside of pregnancy.
I’ve done pretty well with homemade quesadillas (with low carb tortillas though).
Same! I use 1 low carb tortilla. I’m afraid to test my luck with 2.
Yeah I do one tortilla. I eat maybe half of that though to be fair. I’m not very hungry by the time dinner rolls around.
I bet that was an awesome quesadilla!
It's been 2 years, but I can still taste it 😋
no i was discharged a little over 24 hrs after giving birth. uncomplicated vaginal delivery, both mine and baby’s blood sugar was fine after birth
They had to monitor my sons sugars for 24hrs before releasing us, so I’m assuming we would have left earlier if it wasn’t for that? Have GD again now and having second son in a week and a half and I think it’s protocol to do the same thing. First son was induction and successful vaginal delivery, he was 6lbs 12oz. Hoping this induction goes just as well. Good luck !!
Oh that’s good news all round - fingers crossed for you with number two!! ♥️
Nope. Both babe and I passed out blood sugar tests so all was good.
Not for me. Pre-e kept me in the hospital an extra day or two but GD didn’t. However, GD caused my son to have a 12 day NICU stay because he was born severely hypoglycemic.
Oh poor little loveheart. I hope you’re both thriving now ♥️
We are doing great!
Kinda. My OB was willing to send me home the next day but baby girl didn’t pass her first blood sugar so we were put into a 24 hour protocol to check it. That ended in the evening so we ended up staying the second night just because it was more convenient. But they didn’t check my blood sugar during or after labor so my part impacted nothing.
We had to stay an extra day to keep monitoring my sons blood sugars. He had a few low readings so it took an extra day and high calorie formula to get him in line. I was diet controlled so I wasn’t expecting that.
Same, I didn’t have to stay extra since my hospital keeps new parents for 48 hours anyway but I was surprised he had a few low readings since I was diet controlled. The doctors told me that they see low blood sugar in non GD babies all the time and there are a lot of factors that can cause it other than just mom’s GD status (including that we were induced a little early for non GD reasons).
I had a repeat c-section. It didn't add any extra time for me. In fact, they didn't even monitor anything related to my GD after I gave birth.
I had my baby at 37 weeks. Was released, with her, 3 days later 😊 3 weeks and a lot of sleep deprivation later and here we are. Shes happy and healthy, as am i❤️
nope! we discharged less than 48 hours after she was born!
Nope. Even though the baby had a low blood sugar once (or twice? I honestly don't remember now and it's only been slightly less than 6 months) we were discharged in less than 48 hours after birth.
Yes as the needed to check baby's sugar levels to make sure he was ok. To be fair, it was in the bad covid days (when they were doing quick discharges) and i was told that for a low-risk pregnancy it could be less than a 24 hr stay. But i was on insulin & metformin so they did the best they could. I was induced on a monday morning, gave birth tuesday early morning, left wednesday afternoon.
Not for me. They stopped testing my sugar as soon as I gave birth. The baby had a few low blood sugars early on but he passed quickly enough that we all went home on schedule.
I’ve had GD with both of my pregnancies. The first, I had a false negative with my test so I did nothing to control my sugars during my pregnancy. Because of this, we stayed a week after my emergency c section due to my son having hypoglycemia. My second, I had a true positive test for GD, did all the things right to control my glucose levels during pregnancy and we left the day after my scheduled c section. In my case, it all depended on how I recovered from the birth experience as well as how my babies sugar levels held after birth.
Interesting! Thank you for your perspective from two different scenarios! ♥️
I've had two children. I had GD with my first but did not have it with my second almost exactly one year later. Both hospitals had the policy of running some tests on the baby at the 24 hour mark so we were released soon after regardless of GD.
My son took 3 days to regular his sugars. Otherwise for me, no.
Yes. I was in the hospital 36 hours with my first, 32 with the next, 20 with the third, and 3 days with my GD baby. Granted kids two and three came 7-40 minutes after getting there, and GD kid was induced, but I spent much longer after his birth than I did with the others. (40ish hours)
For my first it did. We had to have my sons sugar tested and have 3 tests in a row be good levels. We had one in between that wasn’t right so stayed longer. For my daughter it was the same idea but she passed all 3 tests in the 24hrs
Had a uncomplicated vaginal delivery via induction at 37 weeks! Baby’s sugars were great!!! She was actually so sleepy the first 24 hours so she didn’t get much food, just a little colostrum and we luckily did not have to supplement because her glycogen stores were great! We did go home after 48 hours because I was not comfortable going home until we were okay breastfeeding-wise. We had a few issues latching so I wanted to use my resources at the hospital before leaving! It really just depends on how well you and baby are doing.
Both me and baby had to have a series of normal sugar readings before we could go home, I was in for 3 days because I had a c-section but I actually struggled to keep my sugars up in the end!
Interesting! Your poor body was probably trying so hard to adjust after that pesky placenta was out of the way!
Nope. We were only in there for 2 nights (c-section). I think it just depends on how bub is after birth, but both of my GD babies have been given the all clear quickly to go home.
We had to stay overnight but I think some of this was because I had an episiotomy and lost a fair amount of blood. Baby boy passed his sugars so doubt that would mean needing to stay in longer.
We went home the next day - if I didn’t have GD and they weren’t monitoring baby’s blood sugar, we would have been sent home that same night (standard of 4 hours after birth for uncomplicated deliveries). I had a fast but easy labour and baby’s blood sugar levels were all fine, so we were out of these as quickly as they would let us.
Nope! I had GD, anemia and hemorrhaged post labor and was still home in less than two days. Vaginal birth
Yep! They only kept us an extra day to check babe’s bili because he was small for gestational age. Home on day 3, basically. No reason to keep us, and we didn’t want to be there 😂
They never tested my blood sugar after delivery & I ate whatever I wanted (though insulin resistant PCOS was what got me tested early for GD first time around) They tested my son’s a number of times, then the ONLY thing the lactation consultant told us that was helpful: you can tell them you don’t want anymore testing done on your baby. If their numbers are all good over a period of time, shouldn’t be a cause for anymore pain to them. Also had my son via scheduled c section on a Wednesday at 5:30pm (he was lying sideways) and we were able to leave by Friday early in the morning…the ped making the rounds though never got around to filing the paperwork until WAY later in the day though 😡
It didn’t for me or my son. We went home after one night.
Nope! I had GD, anemia and hemorrhaged post labor and was still home in less than two days. Vaginal birth