Long post here.
I did remember hating the test I took when I was pregnant with Inigo as a spectacularly unpleasant couple of days (foul liquid on empty stomach + hyper emesis = lots of spewing = repeat of testing), so I was going to look into this to make sure it was really, really necessary for this pregnancy. And then I came across this.
Please discuss.
Disco Knitter 
DD accidently-on-purpose missed her test!
Several months ago, my doctor reminded me it was time (Dad died of diabetes) for my biennial test; I’ve been avoiding it becasue that sweet drink on an empty stomach makes me feel so ill – I can’t imagine having it with morning sickness!
You have to make your own informed decision.
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I liked the drink… I also liked hanging around the hospital with nothing to do but read a book 🙂
The drink didn’t make me sick either time, though, even though just about everything else did.
As for whether you should take the test – I guess it’s a matter of deciding what information you trust. If your midwife says she thinks you should do it, maybe you can ask her why.
It’s a tough call, I think. I am all for being informed – I’m a knowledge junkie and question everybody about everything. But if someone who is a professional in their field had a persuasive explanation (ie, something other than “we do it because we do it”), and I trusted them, then I would probably be convinced.
If you do decide to go ahead with the test, there are options other than chugging the drink. I know people who’ve been allowed to drink juice or eat dried fruit etc – as long as it’s a sugar hit it should do the job, right? Maybe that’s an option if your primary concern is about the concoction itself.
I don’t believe I had to fast before the test either – I thought that was only for the three hour test, which you could hopefully avoid if you managed not to puke yourself into flunking the 1 hour.
As an aside, my mother had very severe GD – four shots of insulin a day, but uncontrollable by 37 weeks when my little bro was induced. He was a typical sized, perfectly healthy kid even though my mother’s GD had been rampant. (I didn’t have GD but still managed to produce a baby who was large for gestational age)
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Congrats on planning your homebirth by the way. Our homebirth was by far the best of the four births I’ve experienced, for a bajillion and one reasons. I loved it and would never consider hospital birth again unless medically necessary.
My middie firmly believes that there is no such thing as GD. I am in two minds. Having said that, I had no ultrasounds or glucose tolerance tests during pregnancy number four because after researching both I didn’t feel I needed them.
I have some tricky blood sugar things and I decided that because a) I was already on a virtually sugar-free, low carb diet, which is how they would first treat gd and b) I would know if my blood sugar was off that I didn’t need it. I would have sought blood tests if I felt I needed them.
I DO think that there is a lot of fear around about BIG babies and how difficult it is to deliver them and how you poor little small, fragile woman will never manage it. I think paranoia about gd is also tied up with that attitude. I reckon go with your gut. You will have a strong sense of what is right for you, your baby and your family. The important thing is to question everything because, in my opinion, A LOT of the standard care and screening package presented to pregnant women is a crock!
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I was convinced by a really sensible sounding doctor that controlling GD was worth it. She did explain the latest research to me (not all reflected in that article), and the key reason (as I understood it) was not the size of baby/difficulty of birth. It was trying to give my kids the best possible start/chance at delaying the onset of type II (until 150yrs old, pls?), given family history. And not forcing their little not-yet-fully-developed systems to produce the insulin I lacked. Which is what would be happening.
Also, reading the article, let’s be honest. Diabetes has a genetic aspect, race does too. And diabetes rates ARE higher for some races.
But look, why not lower the risks? Particularly as insulin, caesarian etc don’t always follow. (Dunno who they were surveying in finding diet change didn’t work in that article, I don’t think I was extra lucky, more like average from what I heard). Apart from the bloody finger pricking all the time, my experience wasn’t that bad.
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