| Miracle baby
...Woman
delivers healthy baby despite high sugar level in blood
By ENYERIBE
EJIOGU
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Laughter and a great sense of relief now pervade the home
of Mrs. Aturuchi Ibezim, who recently delivered a healthy baby boy despite initial
fears that the newborn may have developed certain systemic abnormalities, after
his mother was discovered, in the seventh month, to have developed pregnancy-induced
diabetes.
Baby Chidozirim, whose name means God kept me well, weighed four
kilogrammes at birth, and was delivered through a caeserian surgery performed
by a team of four doctors comprising a surgeon, a paediatrician, an anaesthetist
and a general practitioner, at a private hospital in Lagos.
“Looking
at my baby, I get this unbridled and indescribable sense of joy and relief,”
Ibezim said, expressing her feeling about the beautiful outcome of the pregnancy,
which, she revealed, gave her real concern when the doctor, discovered that her
blood sugar level was more than four times the normal.
Recalling the sudden
numbing feeling that swept through her body after the doctor announced the result
of her blood test, in the seventh month of the pregnancy, she said: “I didn’t
know what to do. I just could not understand it at all. I had only gone to the
hospital for the regular ante-natal visit. I complained to the doctor that I didn’t
have strenght at all. I told him that I was always drinking water. Even at that,
I still felt thirsty. I was urinating often. In the night like this, I would get
up more than five to six times to urinate.
“All along, I thought
it was malaria though I didn’t have real fever. I hardly have fever. Because
of my condition, I couldn’t take anti-malaria medicine anyhow. At that time,
I was taking Daraprim (the popular Sunday-Sunday medicine), which is normally
given to pregnant women, to prevent malaria. Still I felt tired. Everyday I would
just lie down. Initially, I assumed it was just because of my condition. As the
pregnancy progressed, I found it difficult to go out to church or to walk two
poles without being out of breath.”
In May, when the pregnancy was
about six months, Ibezim said she took Camoquine. The condition did not significantly
improve. On June 8, she went for the normal ante-natal visit. Based on her complaint,
her doctor, Dr. Samuel Kayode Adebayo, took a sample of her blood to test sugar
level.
The result was quite shocking as Ibezim had four times the normal level.
Promptly, the doctor admitted her and summoned the husband, by phone.
“The
doctor told me that the high level of sugar in my wife’s blood had reached
a life-threatening point, which could even compromise the baby’s life or
make it develop intestinal abnormalities,” Johnson Ibezim said.
From
that point, efforts began to cause the crashing the sugar level through administration
of high doses of insulin twice a day, there was also dietary changes that completely
removed any semblance of carbohydrates.
Besides the high blood glucose
level, Ibezim’s tummy was bigger than what it should have been given the
gestational age of the pregnancy.
“Usually, when a pregnancy reaches
seven to eight months, you expect the size of the tummy to begin reducing gradually
as the baby engages (assumes delivery position) and continues to suck the amniotic
fluid. But in this woman’s case it was not so. It was either that she was
carrying twins or some other factor was responsible, probably the baby’s
intestines were not properly developed,” said Ibezim’s doctor.
To
clear this uncertainty, the doctor sent her for a comprehensive scan, which was
done by a renowned radiologist, Dr Ademola Osinuga, when the pregnancy was in
the 32nd week. The scan result greatly allayed the fears of the couple as the
baby was shown to be normal, though it was growing slightly faster than normal.
Quite importantly all the vital organs were found to be okay. Yet, in his report,
Dr Osinuga advised that Ibezim and the baby should be monitored closely, noting
that pre-emptive steps should be considered.
By sheer benevolence of God,
Ibezim carried the pregnancy for another five weeks, as the family tried to cope
with the anxiety and stress imposed by the diabetic complication, and earnestly
praying that all would be well in the end.
As Dr. Adebayo indicates, pregnancy-induced
diabetes is a medical condition that is not properly understood. There is no known
specific cause, but it is generally “believed that the hormones produced
during pregnancy reduce a woman's receptivity to insulin resulting in high blood
sugar,” Adebayo says.
Poorly controlled gestational diabetes can lead
to the growth of a macrosomic or large baby. This, in turn increases the risk
of instrumental deliveries (eg forceps, vacuum and caesarean section.) Babies
born to mothers with diabetes are also more likely to have hypoglycemia and other
chemical imbalances that need to be monitored and possibly corrected after birth.
These babies may need specialized care in the postpartum period.
Additionally,
poor control of diabetes can lead to a variety of birth defects involving the
heart, kidneys, eyes, and central nervous system, as well as increased risk of
miscarriage. However, birth defects are more common in babies whose mother had
diabetes in the first trimester (first three months) in which case the mother
likely had undiagnosed Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, rather than gestational diabetes.
Gestational diabetes typically does not occur until after the period of organogenensis,
thus birth defects are unlikely.
However, in the future, the mother is
at increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Unlike pre-gestational diabetes,
gestational diabetes generally does not cause birth defects. Birth defects usually
originate sometimes during the first trimester (before the 13th week) of pregnancy.
Infants
of mothers with gestational diabetes are vulnerable to several chemical imbalances,
such as low serum calcium and low serum magnesium levels, but in general, there
are two major problems of gestational diabetes: Macrosomia and hypoglycemia. |
