Gestational diabetes: Dealing with low blood sugar
What is a low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) emergency?
Low blood sugar means that the level of sugar in your blood has dropped below what your body needs to function normally.
Most women with gestational diabetes do not have problems with low blood sugar. But if your blood sugar does drop, it can do so quickly (within 10 to 15 minutes). This usually happens 1 to 2 hours after you have had a shot of fast-acting insulin. Low blood sugar can occur if you:
- Skip or delay a meal or snack.
- Exercise too much without eating enough food.
- Drink alcohol, especially on an empty stomach. No amount of alcohol is safe to drink while you are pregnant.
- Take too much insulin.
- Take medications that can affect your blood sugar levels. Talk with your doctor about other medications you are taking, before you take any new medicines (including aspirin and ibuprofen) or nutritional supplements.
Even if your blood sugar level reading is normal, you may have symptoms of low blood sugar if your level is suddenly lower than usual. For example, if your blood sugar level has been more than 200 mg/dL for a week and the level drops suddenly to 70 mg/dL, you may develop symptoms of low blood sugar.
Test Your Knowledge
Low blood sugar means that the level of sugar in the blood has dropped below what the body needs to function normally.
Low blood sugar can develop because I have:
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| Author: | Caroline Rea, RN, BS, MS | Last Updated: December 4, 2007 |
| Medical Review: | Caroline S. Rhoads, MD - Internal Medicine Lois Jovanovic, MD - Endocrinology | |
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