I am currently 27 weeks pregnant and use over twice as much insulin per day as I did before pregnancy, and the insulin resistance is steadily increasing. My understanding is that within 24 hours of delivery, my insulin needs will revert back to pre-pregnancy levels (or maybe even less).
Can anyone give me more details on how this happened for you? How quickly after delivery? How sudden was it? How did you prepare for this?
I saved all of my old pump settings and just started a new pump profile for pregnancy, so I can switch back to pre-pregnancy basal levels within seconds if necessary! Any advice or experience would be greatly appreciated!!!
It’s been a while, my kids are in their 20s now, but I think my insulin need decreased over the course of a couple of days. It takes time for all the pregnancy hormones to leave your system.
I never went back to my pre pregnancy regimen. Each time I was pregnant and delivered, I needed a little more insulin after it was all over.
At this last appointment, doctor explained that my insulin needs will decrease dramatically within a few hours post delivery. She warned me that I won’t believe the rates/IC ratios she will recommend. She pretty much asked that I trust her and try it, as this is her area of expertise. My concern was leaving the hospital so soon with these changes, since normal discharge is 24-36 hrs post delivery. She assured me I would be able to stay long enough to get the rates stabilized, even if it took a little longer.
It’s a bit of a blur but the precipitous drop happened fairly fast for me, and then went on more gradually over the course of another 1-2 days before it stabilized. I believe I set my basal to 50% of my last pregnancy rate at first and then continued adjusting with constant BG checks (chose not to wear a sensor during delivery), which they had me do on the hour with hospital equipment. Since I have breastfed my baby from the beginning, my basal has been even slightly lower than my pre-pregnancy ones for six months now.
For me dramatic and immediate drop upon delivery. in fact i had cesarian and they overdosed insulin during the surgery and i had iv glucose drip for first 24 hours. After that it settled down. Dramatic cut in insulin. Maybe even stop it for first 24hours or so, then readjust.
