According to statistics, between 2 to 5 percent of expectant mothers develop “gestational diabetes” (a blood sugar condition). KidsHealth.org says that having GD can cause problems in newborns and also increases the chance of a C-Section due to abnormally large growth in the baby. Because of this, between the 24th and 28th week of pregnancy, there is a screening done on all mothers. This screening is the “Glucose Test”, or also called a glucose challenge test or GCT.
For this first test, there really is no definitive results. You either “pass” or “fail”. Testing “high” doesn’t mean you have gestational diabetes – it just means you “failed” the first test. An article I read at babycenter.com says that only about 1/3 of women who test high on the first test have diabetes (that’s great to know!). If you do ”fail” the first one however, you have to undergo a longer (3 hours or so), more definitive exam called a glucose tolerance test (GTT) at a hospital like my friend Jill had to take.
I just realized yesterday that it’s already nearing the end of January – which means that my next doctor’s appointment is this coming Thursday, January 24. EEK! It is at that appointment that I will be having my own glucose test done (I’ll be 25 weeks along).
If you know anything about me, you know how deathly scared I am of shots (fine thing to be with a baby comin’, huh). When they were explaining my proceedures, they said “prick your finger” – but with all the reading I’ve done it appears that this is going to be another vein drawn blood tap. :( I’m also apprehensive about drinking all that sugary stuff….I don’t wanna get doubly nauseated! And Baby Center doesn’t help by saying this…
Will this test make me feel sick?
Some moms-to-be feel nauseated after drinking the glucose solution, and a few even throw up. It sometimes helps to have eaten something a few hours before the screening test. If you vomit soon after you’ve gotten the drink down, you’ll have to come back another day and repeat the test. But most women get through it just fine. It’s actually more common for women to feel sick during the three-hour glucose tolerance test, because the solution for that test may be twice as sweet or twice as much liquid as the one for the screening test and you have to drink it after fasting.
As for the test, I’ve been instructed to not eat or drink anything starting at midnight on Wednesday. My appointment at the OBGYN is at 8 am Thursday morning (bleh!). When I arrive, they’ll give me a really sugary sweet drink, and then I’ll wait about an hour (they said til 9 am). Apparantly it has 50 grams of glucose in it and tastes like a very sweet soda pop (it comes in different flavors according to my doctor), and you have to get all of it down in five minutes. After the hour is up, they’ll draw my blood for the test – and I’m dreading it completely. What’s worse is that results will take a few days!
Here is what Baby Center had to say about what the results should be like…
What is an abnormal blood glucose level?
Different practitioners use different standards for determining whether your level is too high. Some will say that if your one-hour blood sugar level is 140 milligrams of glucose per deciliter of blood plasma (mg/dL) or more, you need to have the glucose tolerance test. Others put the cut-off at 130 mg/dL to catch more women who may have gestational diabetes, even though there are likely to be more false positives this way.If your blood glucose level for this test is higher than 200 mg/dL, most practitioners will consider you diabetic and you won’t be required to take the glucose tolerance test. But any score between 140 and 200 means that you’ll have to take the three-hour glucose tolerance test for a definite diagnosis.
Let’s hope I pass this thing so I don’t have to go through that 3 hour ordeal at the hospital like Jill did!
