Hello everyone!

My friend gave me permission to post this.

My friend gave birth to her first baby, he will be a year old at the end 
of June.  She had gestational diabetes, and had to go on insulin, I'm 
guessing, around the beginning of her second trimester, although it 
could have been earlier than that.  She was able to keep her sugar under 
good control throughout her pregnancy, as she was very prudent with her 
diet.  Her son did not have any issues related to her diabetes at birth, 
although he was born via c-section after a failed induction.  (Her 
sugars gave them an indication that the placenta was starting to fail.)

Her son is nursing, and doing very well.  She had a few bumps in the 
road in the beginning but never had any supply issues at all.  She has 
PCOS.  Although she doesn't need insulin anymore, she is still very 
prudent with her diet.  However, she occasionally checks her fasting 
blood sugar and sometimes it's 120.  She knows this isn't high enough to 
be concerned, but that it is at a pre-diabetic level.  (Her husband has 
had type 1 diabetes since he was a boy.) 

My question (to her, and to everyone here) was, what effect does 
lactation have on blood sugar?  She had read that lactation should lower 
it, but I wonder if some people run a little higher so that they don't 
crash?  She said her sugar does crash now and then too, it's kind of all 
over the place.  Again she is very consistent with her diet, as her 
husband has IDDM and she wants to prevent problems for herself.  I 
thought I read that a working pancreas is important for milk production, 
but I can't remember why exactly, and can't women who are always insulin 
dependent bring in a full milk supply?

Her son is eating some solids but has had a little trouble with 
textures, so he is still getting mostly her milk at this point.  She is 
not overweight but has not been able to lose the last 20 pounds of 
pregnancy weight.  She leads a pretty active lifestyle as well.

Private emails are always welcome if you don't wish to respond on-list.

Thanks in advance!
Liz Cammin, RN, and mom to two nurslings!

             ***********************************************

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
Mail all commands to [log in to unmask]
To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or [log in to unmask])
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet or ([log in to unmask])
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]