Skip to main content
Submitted by PatientsEngage on 12 April 2020

Dr. Uma Ram, Director and OBGYN Seethapathy clinic and Hospital, Chennai shares tips for pregnant women to follow to ensure good sugar control, especially in times of Covid-19 lockdown which has restricted movement and is stressful.

One in five pregnant women we see have gestational diabetes or high sugars in pregnancy. A lock down can cause problems for them because they may not be able to exercise, get enough veggies or access blood tests. Here are a few tips to ensure good sugar control

  1. Walk on your terrace or inside your house especially after meals. If you have a step counter use it. Most smartphones have a step counter.
     
  2. Do upper body exercises at home, since they are a good way to help keep control of your blood sugars..
     
  3. The physical activity involved in household work can also help.
     
  4. Be conscious that diet is even more important if you can’t exercise as much. Do NOT succumb to having “just one sweet “. Do read Dietary approach to managing Gestational Diabetes 
     
  5. This is a stressful time. It may be natural to feel worried or anxious. Don’t confuse that for hunger and seek out high calorie or sugared comfort food.
     
  6. Get a glycometer and check your sugars on it to keep track. Here are tips on choosing a glucometer.
     
  7. Mail in your reports or call in and talk to your doctors. See a primer on the new telemedicine guidelines.  
     
  8. Routine scans may be cancelled but if you are on medication or sugars are poorly controlled, it is recommended that your doctor can keep a watch on you and do scans as required.
     
  9. If there is a BP monitor at home that’s well calibrated, use it to check your blood pressure as your routine check up frequency may be reduced. Women with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus(GDM) are at higher risk of developing BP in pregnancy so it’s important to keep an eye out for that too.

 

Related reading: 

Pregnancy and Diabetes

Pregnancy and Hypertension

 

 

Director and OBGYn Seethapathy clinic and Hospital, keen on clinical research and empowering women with health information 

Condition

Stories

  • Tears of a Clown
    Christina Kim, long one of the LPGA Tour's most effervescent personalities, opens up about her battle with depression. "I felt like all the fun and joy was suffocating me," she says now. "I looked down, and the water seemed very inviting, even though I can't swim. The solitude and silence that I was seeking, which I couldn't find anywhere in the building because everyone was laughing and living life and being happy, seemed to be in the water." She thought it over, stood there for about 15…
  • Diabetes FAQ - Questions that you wanted to ask but never did
    Based on a discussion with Dr. Venkat Rao, Diabetologist 1. My mother has diabetes. Should I get my blood sugar checked? I am now 30 years old.  Everybody should get their blood sugar tested once a year after the age of 30, irrespective of whether or not there is a family history of diabetes. This is especially true for Indians as India has a high incidence of diabetes.  If you have a family history of diabetes with a tendency of early occurrence; if you are obese…
  • For 13 years she was afraid of telling people she had Type 2 Diabetes
    Today Juliana Lim from Singapore is a team leader in a Diabetes Support Group inspiring others to be open about their condition. Read about her inspiring story
  • 7 reasons to love Chia Seeds. Plus 3 simple recipes.
    By nutritionist Kohila Govindaraju What are Chia Seeds ? They are a member of the mint family Why love them? • Chia seeds improve insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance. The soluble fibre in the seeds helps to stabilise blood glucose levels. When soaked in liquid, they develop a gelatinous texture. This gel formation phenomenon creates the barrier between carbohydrates and digestive enzymes that ultimately slow down the conversion of carbohydrates into simple sugar.…
  • Malays, Indians with Type 2 diabetes more likely to suffer strokes, heart attacks: Study
    SINGAPORE: In a decade-long diabetes study, researchers from Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) found that among those with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), Malays and Indians are at higher risk of cardiovascular diseases compared to Chinese patients. Malay patients had two times higher risk while Indians had 1.7 times higher risk of diseases such as heart attacks and strokes, compared to Chinese patients with T2DM, according to findings of a study released by the healthcare cluster that manages…
  • Diabetes has kept me healthy
    SR Madhu, 73, has had diabetes for 23 years, and has avoided the health hazards faced by his peers. He thanks the diabetes lifestyle for his wellbeing. Plus, his experience of hypoglycaemia.  I was quite upset to discover in 1991 that diabetes had hit me. I had been "on the borderline" of diabetes for a few years whenever I had been tested in India. But when I crossed the international border in 1991 to take up a UN assignment in Zimbabwe, the diabetes crossed…
  • FDA Approval For Two-In-One Diabetes Pill XIGDUO™ XR
    U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved once-daily XIGDUO™ XR (dapagliflozin and metformin hydrochloride extended-release) for the treatment of adults with type 2 diabetes. It is already approved in Australia XIGDUO XR combines two anti-hyperglycemic agents with complementary mechanisms of action, dapagliflozin (trade name in the U.S. FARXIGA™), an inhibitor of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2), and metformin hydrochloride (HCl) extended-release, a biguanide, in a once-daily oral…
  • Giant leap in Type 1 Diabetes treatment
    Harvard stem cell researchers today announced that they have made a giant leap forward in the quest to find a truly effective treatment for type 1 diabetes, a condition that affects an estimated 3 million Americans at a cost of about $15 billion annually. With human embryonic stem cells as a starting point, the scientists are for the first time able to produce, in the kind of massive quantities needed for cell transplantation and pharmaceutical purposes, human insulin-producing…
  • Diabetes patient jabbing themselves with insulin
    Worried About Insulin Shots?
    Persons with diabetes often get extremely stressed when their doctor wants to move them from pills to insulin shots. Dr Shital Patel allays the fears and explains what to expect and how to go about it. The transition from pills to insulin injections can be a worrying experience for many Diabetes Type 2 patients. You should know that this does not mean that your diabetes has worsened or that your Type 2 diabetes has changed to Type 1. You are being prescribed insulin because after…
  • FDA approves Trulicity a weekly injectable to treat type 2 diabetes
    The U.S. FDA today approved Trulicity (dulaglutide), a once-weekly subcutaneous injection to improve glycemic control (blood sugar levels), along with diet and exercise, in adults with type 2 diabetes. "Type 2 diabetes is a serious chronic condition that causes blood glucose levels to rise higher than normal,” said Mary Parks, M.D., deputy director of the Office of Drug Evaluation II in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Trulicity is a new treatment option, which can be used…