I will be 32 weeks on Weds., and starting this week my doctor is having me come in 2x a week for 30 minutes for fetal activity monitoring. Do all diabetic mommy's in the 3rd trimester have to do this? My sister (who's not a diabetic) never had to do this with her pregnancies. Does it last up until delivery? Anyone's who's been through it, what exactly goes on? Thanks for any/all info!
I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes during my last pregnancy (diagnosed type 1 several months after delivery). With gestational starting around 32 weeks I went in twice a week. One day I has a Non-Stress Test (NST) & the other day I had an ultrasound to monitor baby’s growth. For the NST they hooked me up to a monitor & I had to feel baby move so many times during the 30 minute period. Most of these went well. One time I didn’t get enough movement so they did an ultrasound that day too & baby was perfectly fine, the monitor just isn’t as good as an ultrasound. Baby was born at 39 weeks weighing 7lb 11oz with no sugar/health issues!
Meant to include that this was just last year (which I figure makes a difference as procedures change a lot over the years)! Can’t believe my baby will be 1 in a few weeks! I’m thankful to have found this board to help with T1 & pregnancy as I think of having one more child sometime in the near future (next year maybe)!
I am 31 weeks. My parinatologist told me right away that we would do twice a week non-stress tests starting at 32 weeks. He said this was standard. I also had to do this during the second trimester for a while because of a different complication. The baby's heart is supposed to accelerate and decelerate a certain number of times per 5 minutes, in a healthy baby. Because diabetes can cause irregular growth in the heart chambers during the third trimester, they want to make sure the heart is doing the speeding up and slowing down it's supposed to, and nothing has started developing abnormally.
They put a strap around your belly while you sit in a chair, hook you up to the monitor and then listen to the heart for 30 minutes. It's super easy. But boring, so take a book. :)
I never had to do this. Instead I had once a week biophysical profiles, which were super quick and turned out to be fairly accurate! They got his birth weight spot on during the last one :)