How many days should a pregnant woman take insulin in hospital?

Diabetes is a relatively harmful disease. Not only middle-aged and elderly people are susceptible to the disease, but women may also develop diabetes during pregnancy. This is gestational diabetes. Currently, the most effective way to control diabetes is to inject insulin. Because the condition of pregnant women is very complicated, they need to go to the hospital for treatment and monitor other changes in their bodies. So, how many days should a pregnant woman stay in the hospital to take insulin?

The number of days a pregnant woman needs to be hospitalized for insulin injections is determined based on her blood sugar level. If the blood sugar level is kept stable, she can be discharged from the hospital. Generally, she needs to stay for about a week. The blood sugar level of patients with gestational diabetes is very important, because too high blood sugar levels will affect the growth and development of the fetus. In order to control the blood sugar level within the normal range, the doctor needs to adjust the insulin dosage according to the patient's pre-meal and post-meal blood sugar. When the appropriate amount of insulin is found and the blood sugar level is in a stable state, the pregnant woman can be discharged from the hospital. This may take a week to adjust.

What to do if you have diabetes during pregnancy

Diabetes that develop during pregnancy is called gestational diabetes. The current treatment for gestational diabetes includes diet alone, exercise control, and the use of insulin on the basis of diet and exercise control. This is mainly selected based on the patient's physical condition and blood sugar level.

The principle of dietary control should be to ensure nutrition for pregnant women and fetuses without causing the production of starvation ketone bodies and postprandial hyperglycemia; the principle of exercise should be to not cause intrauterine distress, developmental retardation, uterine contractions, and to keep the expectant mother's heart rate normal. If blood sugar levels still cannot reach standard after 3 to 5 days of diet control and exercise therapy, or if starvation ketosis occurs after diet control and blood sugar levels exceed standard again after increasing calories, insulin treatment must be started as soon as possible and continued until delivery.

However, it is not easy for expectant mothers to control their diet. The process of diet and exercise control is best carried out under the guidance of a professional doctor. As long as the mother's weight gain is normal (one pound per week), there is no need to worry about the baby's maldevelopment. However, this first requires that the diabetic mother's blood sugar is well controlled. Otherwise, even if the mother's weight gain is normal, the baby may suffer from malnutrition.

If the expectant mother's blood sugar has the following characteristics after controlling diet and exercising: pre-meal blood sugar ≥5.6mmol/L, zero-point blood sugar ≥5.8mmol/L, or 2-hour post-meal blood sugar ≥6.7mmol/L, she should promptly add insulin suitable for pregnant women to adjust her blood sugar. Be sure to closely monitor blood sugar when using it, and test it four times a day, namely after three meals and before going to bed. Once the blood sugar is higher than the reference value, seek medical attention promptly and adjust the insulin dosage.