November 16, 2009

Hello

Stress - this is something I have pondered most of my pregnancy.  Everyone tells me to eliminate stress.  They say it is bad for the baby.  They say it is bad for the diabetes.  So it must be really horrible for me since I have both.

It has been an interesting week.  I have had a lot going on in my personal life that has lead me to talk about stress today.  I am not sure what impact stress has on my pregnancy or diabetes. I have read both sides of the story.  I have also seen my first pregnancy come through fine under stress.  So it is hard to say what the true answer is.  I know all the studies and findings about stress on a normal life.  I know it leads to heart attacks and so forth.  But how does it affect a baby?  How does it affect blood sugar?  Before I was pregnant, I remember having a morning when I was SOOOOOOOOOO angry and stressed out.  My blood sugar that morning was close to 200.  I figured it was the stress.  I thought at that time that this is what stress does to me. I have had some pretty stressful days over the last week and there have been no spikes in my blood sugar.  I thought that was odd.  We aren’t just talking about normal day to day stress either.  I thought “well, my theory is blown now”.  My mother and husband were all freaked out asking me what my blood sugar was because they knew the stress I was under.  We were all surprised to see how low it was. 

To answer some questions, I turned to the internet.  This is probably not the recommended method because that can only stress you out more.  I read in a matter of 30 minutes everything from stress has no affect to stress will cause miscarriages to stress hormones pass to the baby and will cause the baby to be more readily accepting to stress.  WHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!! All the stress!  I have picked another approach that I read.  It may not be correct but it makes sense and has a good motto: All you need is love.  Someone said that all the stress that may be experienced in pregnancy could be easily reversed in the first few days of the baby’s life.  Just show the baby love and make a comfortable environment for the baby.  This is what they said : “I think any potential damage (if any) to your baby can be very easily undone in the first few weeks of his life with the overwhelming love and affection you'll give him. We have to keep in mind that babies are VERY resilient and nature made them able to withstand quite a bit while in the womb.”  I agree.  I think we let the stress of worrying about the stress get to us too much.  After all, our parents didn’t know all this when they were pregnant with us and we turned out semi all right. Most of the things I am stressed about I have no control over.  It isn’t like I can change them by worrying about them or not.  They are going to happen and I am going to have to deal with them.  I can say the same for my child once it is born.  Things happen.  Sometimes it is not what we want to happen.  As a parent I need to prepare my child for that fact of life.  Maybe I am starting already.