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Diabetes and pregnancy: getting ready, the risks, the blood glucose targets, insulin, and after the baby
For anyone with type 1 or type 2 diabetes who is pregnant, just found out, or is planning a pregnancy, and for the people beside them. It passes on, by name, what the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK, part of the NIH) says: how to get ready, how high blood glucose can affect the baby and you, how diabetes from before pregnancy differs from gestational diabetes, the team and the checkups, food, moving, smoking and alcohol, medicines and insulin, the blood glucose targets most often recommended in pregnancy, ketones, A1C and the baby’s tests, and the care you need after the birth. It builds the words to say to your health care team, so you do not have to find them, and prints a card.
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- On this site: Gestational diabetes · When blood sugar goes too low or too high · Blood sugar log · The A1C test.
- Pregnancy: Pregnant, or with a new baby · Thyroid disease and pregnancy · High blood pressure · Postpartum depression.
- Getting ready: Get ready for your appointment · When you can’t afford your medicine · When you need a doctor and can’t pay.
- In a crisis: Help right now (988, 911). All our free tools.
Other guides on this site that go with this page
Free to read. We chose these ourselves; no professional did. Each guide was written with AI and has not been reviewed by a professional. They are general information, not advice.
- Diabetic retinopathy: the signs, who is at risk, the yearly eye exam, protecting your sight, and treatment: diabetic retinopathy: the signs, who is at risk, the yearly eye exam, protecting your sight, and treatment.
- Breastfeeding: when it hurts, or you’re not sure it’s working: breastfeeding: whether your baby is getting enough, pain and the latch, breast infection, pumping and storing milk, and your rights at work.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No doctor or nurse has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 19, 2026 on NIDDK’s (NIH) page Pregnancy if You Have Diabetes (last reviewed September 2024) and its Spanish page Lo que debe saber si tiene diabetes y queda en embarazo (September 2024), which say the same. The numbers (the first 8 weeks; weeks 24 and 28; 150 minutes a week; the targets 70 to 95, 110 to 140 and 100 to 120 mg/dL; the CGM range 63 to 140 mg/dL; A1C 6.5% or lower, and as low as 6%; insulin needs that may double or triple; 3 months; 3 to 12 weeks) are NIDDK’s, and we add none, and no doses. Ours: “if you believe it is an emergency, call 911”, and 911 for someone with diabetes who passes out or cannot swallow (NIDDK names no 911 on this page; the second is what our diabetes page says); 988; that a risk is not a certainty and no one is to blame; that the CDC’s urgent warning signs are on our pregnancy page; never changing a dose or stopping a medicine on your own; the questions to ask; the links to our other pages; and the order of the steps. What we left out: the section on clinical trials, the references, NIDDK’s video, and NIDDK’s links to other sites. Nothing you tick or type here is saved or sent.