Dealing with low blood sugar when you have gestational diabetes
What is a low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) emergency?
Low blood sugar means that the level of sugar in your blood has dropped below what your body needs to function normally.
Most women with gestational diabetes do not have problems with low blood sugar. But if your blood sugar does drop, it can do so quickly (within 10 to 15 minutes). This usually happens 1 to 2 hours after you have had a shot of fast-acting insulin. Low blood sugar can occur if you:
- Skip or delay a meal or snack.
- Exercise too much without eating enough food.
- Drink alcohol, especially on an empty stomach. No amount of alcohol is safe to drink while you are pregnant.
- Take too much insulin.
- Take medications that can affect your blood sugar levels. Talk with your doctor about other medications you are taking, before you take any new medicines (including ASA and ibuprofen) or nutritional supplements.
Even if your blood sugar level reading is normal, you may have symptoms of low blood sugar if your level is suddenly lower than usual. For example, if your blood sugar level has been more than 11.1 mmol/L for a week and the level drops suddenly to 4.4 mmol/L, you may develop symptoms of low blood sugar.
Test Your Knowledge
Low blood sugar means that the level of sugar in the blood has dropped below what the body needs to function normally.
Low blood sugar can develop because I have:
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Why is it important to quickly deal with low blood sugar emergencies?
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| Author: | Alison Allen Caroline Rea, RN, BS, MS | Last Updated: February 12, 2008 |
| Medical Review: | Caroline S. Rhoads, MD - Internal Medicine Lois Jovanovic, MD - Endocrinology Andrew Swan, MD, CCFP, FCFP - Family Medicine | |
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