As a diabetic person, I'm constantly trying to find new information about the condition, treatments and the experiences of other people with diabetes. But, when the time came to start a family, I was really surprised by the lack of resources out there for women with diabetes who are going to become pregnant.
Obviously, I had a million questions. What kind of insulin and blood glucose changes could I expect? What sort of doctors would I need to see? What sort of effects would diabetes have on my pregnancy and infant? Should I even bother reading about 'normal' pregnancies?
The only resources out there were one book, Balancing Pregnancy and Pre-Existing Diabetes by Cheryl Alkon, that I recommend as a great resource for reading about the experiences of many diabetic women and their pregnancy strategies, and the medical literature, which I found alternately terrifying and unreadable. I wanted something in between
To fill the void, I started doing a lot of research. I'm a science and health writer by day, so I'm really comfortable translating dense medical information into a palatable form for people without M.D.s. I also wanted to include my own experiences, so that my handful of diabetic friends and hopefully a wider female diabetic community might find this information to be a useful tool when it's time to start their families.
Fetus has a sweet tooth.
