Annie: Turned around gestational diabetes and got healthier and slimmer as her pregnancy progressed!

At around 30 weeks pregnant I was told I had gestational diabetes, albeit by only slight margins. Type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes and insulin resistance runs in my and my family’s histories, so when it had become my turn to claim my rights to choose my options for treatment, I very quickly eliminated fruitless medications as one of them, having not seen any evidence of it working in my family.

The only non-medicinal advice that was given me through the hospital was ONE appointment with a dietitian.They gave me a program that promoted a label-reading, carb-counting and portion-controlling routine. It afforded me my cravings in small serves. However, despite the enormous efforts to follow their instructions, my stress, hunger, and more importantly BGLs [blood glucose levels] continued to rise. Rather than focus on my lifestyle I was quickly pressured to conform to the “inevitable” of relying on metformin or insulin. I could see this relationship between their diet and rising BGLs (then paying for medication) was no coincidence. It was no wonder how being diet-controlled to the end on this plan was such a rare and unheard of occurrence for them.

So they added assumptions that my baby will be overweight and require planning a caesarean, which means needing to express milk early to prevent baby’s risks of hypoglycemia… it felt like an avalanche didn’t stop from one diagnosis!

So thankful that Robyn was recommended to me by a doula who our family has trusted for years. She put me on particular food groups with short and reasonable goals and timeframes, personal to my condition, with clear directions and plenty of scientific resources to back her plan and motivate me. I really appreciated that Robyn does not just send a shopping list and let you go. She sends regular emails throughout your transition into your treatment. Her understanding of of withdrawals fads and temptations were so intimate, as she emailed advice and updates that almost telepathically answered the symptoms I was enduring that very day.

She promised low BGLs, reversed diabetes, a healthy baby and vitality and energy, every promise came through! Unlike most pregnancies I was lighter and fitter in the last trimester, having lost approximately 7kg while baby gained weight in the 55-85 percentile range!

Following this plan gave me so much dignity and strength.

I also felt so validated in my frustrations and suspicions about the previous treatment, and really enjoyed how her advice and services answered and solved each one of them. I felt partnered with and equipped in a trimester that is known to be the slowest and most uncomfortable for women, and emotionally frustrating while battling a diagnosis that throws mothers into a vicious cycle.

Back to that avalanche: a couple of registrars continued to treat me as “diabetic”, without any review or chance to reverse or improve my diabetic status, and with almost no evidence of diabetes showing in the wellbeing or size of the baby, or in my own progress. This was accompanied by skewing results and using emotive language to rush me into booking a caesarean. Thanks to Robyn who genuinely “empowered” me as her business name suggests – and a positive and dedicated midwifery team in the hospital that supported and monitored my progress weekly – I could hold onto the facts that showed there was no emergency or rush anymore!

Better still, my improving health and apparent motivation gave the midwives good grounds to transfer me to a hospital that would let me attempt a breech-vaginal birth! Once transferred I had a clean slate to show what seemed dire at hospital 1, was points in my favour at hospital 2. An experience that diabetic women and breech babies are discouraged to even dream about, came true! I was told I have a body fit for birthing…. Two days later, daughter Sofia was born!

In hindsight I’m thankful for my GDM and breech diagnosis, because if they didn’t happen, I wouldn’t be on this journey of health and education and enjoyed the challenges and achievements of overcoming the diagnosis. Monitoring my and baby’s health weekly felt mysterious and magical because I wasn’t afraid anymore. Could just focus on watching her grow.

I believe that if I continued with my old eating and activity habits, Sofia would not have enjoyed the radiant health (including being cleared for hypoglycemia) and easy going temperament she does today. Sofia was often called the “happiest baby in the world” since her first scans! And she still is. I couldn’t be happier with her birthweight, her awareness and instincts to feed, and ability to communicate so early.

She showed how healthy a “diabetic baby” could become.

Can avalanches roll safely back uphill? After working with Robyn, I believe so. Many GD treatments, articles or ideas might suggest management. Robyn puts her money where her mouth is and offers reversal. Anyone who is sick of the endless striving, sense of guilt and loss, lack of confidence, and the “why bother” temptation, would benefit from the turnaround physically, mentally and emotionally that Robyn’s services has to offer.

Annie Sydney