Today I read a great post about Gestational Diabetes screening and testing. Yes, by the way, there is a difference. That first thing where you have the nasty sugar drink and then get your blood drawn an hour later isn’t the actual diagnostic test… it screens you to determine whether you should have the test itself, the one that involves even more nasty sugar drink and more blood draws.
My favorite points from this article are (1) that a cookie cutter approach to prenatal care means that many women are not getting the care appropriate to their particular situation/risk factors, and (2) that it is absurd to admonish a woman to eat healthy, and then make her fast and consume a high sugar drink in the name of said health. [Which reminds me of the absurdity of telling women to never lay on their back while they are pregnant but then making them lay on their back while giving birth.]
Yeah-HUH! That absurd paradox is why I refused that test–it took so much work to keep my body in as good a balance as I could manage when I was pregnant (not that great! But I worked hard at it), there was no way I was messing up that hard work with a high dose of sugar.
The high rate of inaccuracy of this screen and test should make it far less prevalent in my opinion…
On the other hand, GD is said to be significant wrt maternal and fetal health and outcomes, and definitively linked to a Western diet. So tough to know how to deal with GD!