Either being pregnant or having diabetes can cause women to feel alone and different. Having both conditions together can make a woman feel like an outcast at times. With no one who really understands, it can be difficult to follow doctor’s orders after awhile. Networking can help diabetic pregnant women overcome these problems.
When loved ones find out that a pregnant woman has diabetes, or that a diabetic woman is pregnant, they are full of advice. Their well-meaning persistence in trying to control the woman’s diabetes can become something more like hounding. Women who are subjected to such pressure feel stressed and often humiliated.
Even if the meddling relatives will not go away, it is good to have a network of people who can support the diabetic woman through her pregnancy. It helps to find women who understand from experience what it is like to struggle with high and low blood sugar levels, for example.
Women who can relate to the drudgery of constant blood sugar monitoring can empathize with someone who is just beginning to weary of it. They can give examples of how they got through it. This is not just someone’s theory of what a woman might do, but suggestions based on actual experience.
Because pregnant women who are diabetic are not the widest demographic, it may be difficult to find other people to network with in the woman’s local area. Sometimes there are groups associated with hospitals, especially if they are large regional facilities. Otherwise, it is necessary to find women from this group in other ways.
The internet offers many forums for pregnant diabetic women, or diabetic women who wish to become pregnant. These sites are easy to find. Just type into the browser: pregnancy diabetes forum. There will be many sites to choose.
These sites are filled with women’s stories. Many have women’s accounts of their entire pregnancies, sometimes even starting before conception and going through the time after the child is born. Pregnant women can get an idea of what might be expected in their own pregnancies by reading the stories of others.
Another way pregnant women with diabetes can use these forums is to ask questions. They can talk about their current situations and put out a general question to the other members of the forum. Other women will post their answers and opinions to help the woman understand her problem better.
However, it is never wise to take the advice and opinions of a forum for the truth when it comes to serious health matters. Getting the information from the forum only gives women a starting point to build on by talking with their doctors. If the doctor does not think something is important, then a woman can learn from her peers about the everyday situations.
No matter what information is gleaned from the process, it is always helpful to be in contact with women who are going through similar problems. It helps a woman feel more normal and human. Networking makes this possible.
