“It’s a little sad that that’s not accessible to everyone with diabetes,” said Megan Mulrooney, a Newfoundland mother living in Charlottetown who was diagnosed with gestational diabetes during her pregnancy. “It should be an option as they really have no choice.”
Mulrooney said her experience managing diet and blood sugar levels during pregnancy was emotionally draining.
“As a French girl, throwing away my bread, my pastries and my pasta was detrimental to my mental health,” she said. “I actually ate like a rabbit for the last three months of my pregnancy.”
She had to check her blood sugar levels six times a day.
“Pricking my finger and checking my blood really stressed me out,” she said. “Your skin gets calluses, it becomes harder. Then you have to go upstairs for a stronger injection.”
She was supported by the PEI Diabetes Education Center in Charlottetown.
“I would send them a weekly report on my grades, and they and I would work together to determine what needed to be adjusted if my grades were too high,” she said.
Mulrooney’s condition resolved after giving birth, but she knows many women are not so lucky.
“Often people are undiagnosed, just like women are undiagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and they don’t find out about it until they get pregnant,” she said.
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