Anina’s Experience While Expecting

One’s first pregnancy is always the most nerve-wrecking and exciting experience all in one! But managing type 1 diabetes, a first pregnancy and work all together can be significantly more daunting.

Anina was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes only 7 years ago.  Taking ownership of her diabetes was something she did early on.  Anina realised the importance of being well controlled and started reducing her HbA1c before the start of her pregnancy.  With a lot of work – testing up to 15 times a day - and dedication, she reduced her HbA1c to 6.7%.  The challenge was: how to reduce her A1c without increasing low blood glucose levels.

Her tight glucose control also affected her quality of life and she experienced anxiety, worrying about high glucose levels and the impact this might have on her and her baby.   She would often over-inject for meals – causing regular low glucose levels. Anina realised that her approach was not sustainable - “I just didn’t have enough information to manage my glucose!”

Anina and her doctor decided that continuous glucose monitoring would not only help her to keep her HbA1c low, but would also assist in reducing her concern of unpredictable low or high glucose levels.  Having continuous glucose monitoring – that updates every 5 minutes and seeing trend arrows not only impacted on her state of mind but also on her glucose control.  – “it gives me comfort to be able to see my glucose readings at any time because I don’t have to guess anymore.”  For the first time she was able to monitor the impact of specific food choices. “I am able to see the effect of different foods on my glucose which empowers me to adjust my insulin for better glucose control.  I also don’t have to stress about blood glucose control, knowing I’ll be warned in advanced. This gives me a lot of freedom.”

With the help of Guardian Connect, Anina did not only reduce her HbA1c even further - to 5.8%, but also reduced hypoglycaemic events.

Anina is the proud Mom of a healthy baby and believes that life is much simpler not having to stress about blood glucose levels.