Diabates Schmiabetes

Tomorrow is my 3-hour, tedious, torturous gestational diabetes blood testing because I "failed" the first one a couple of weeks ago. I will spare y'all my full-throated, vitriolic diatribe on this non-issue (my thanks to those of you who have endured it live or in chat), but instead present you with a research-backed, articulate and to-the-point article on why exactly it is a non-issue.

Gestational Diabetes: The Emperor Has No Clothes by Henci Goer

If you're not anxious to devour the whole article as I was, let me use this passage to sum it up nicely:

Good medicine demands that diagnosis and treatment of any disease fulfill four criteria:

* The condition has to pose a health risk;
* Diagnosis must accurately distinguish between those who have the disease and those who don't;
* Treatment should be effective; and
* The benefits of diagnosis and treatment should outweigh the risks.

An entire medical industry has grown up around diagnosing and treating gestational diabetes (GD) in the belief that doing so prevents perinatal deaths, congenital anomalies, neonatal complications, macrosomic babies, and because of fetal macrosomia, birth injuries and excessive cesarean rates. However, diagnosis and treatment of gestational diabetes don't fulfill any of the above criteria.


The article goes on to explain why the original GD study and research and modern broad-based testing of it amounts to little more than a hill of jelly beans.

The only reason I am even putting up with this ridiculous charade of a diagnostic test is because my midwife* insists I must if I wish to have a homebirth with her, which I do, because I have no other choice for a homebirth at this time, unless I just want to go into the woods with a blanket and a bucket--a scenario I must confess to considering seriously lately. I regret my lack of options, but am comforted by the fact that my mom, a competent, knowledgeable, and savvy veteran labor & delivery nurse will both accompany to my test tomorrow and at the time of the birth of my baby.

In the meantime though, I continue to roll my eyes at yet another confidence-sabotaging hurdle and sigh at the 12-hour fast on the horizon. WhatEVER gestational diabetes.

*"Wait, Mary, don't you love your midwife?" Um, I love that having her gives me a fairly good option for homebirth. I love that, for the most part, she doesn't insist on forcing tests on me. I love her that, when she is present at my appointments (most of the time it's her assistant), she is nice to me. Do I think she is awesome and supersmart and amazing? Not really. But this is rural East Texas and this is my option. Fortunately, I am extremely confident and knowledgeable about my choices and I have the full support of my mom, who is just about the best and smartest and most competent care provider I know.