Each year, thousands of healthy babies are born to women with diabetes. This wasn't always the case. In the dark days before insulin, women with diabetes usually didn't live long enough to think about starting a family. Even in the 1980s, childbirth was risky for diabetic women and their children, with birth defects and stillbirths commonplace.

Thank God things are better today. Years of research shows that it's not only possible to have a healthy baby with diabetes, it's actually probable. Today we know that good prenatal care combined with tight blood sugar control lowers the risk for diabetic pregnancies. In fact, if you can maintain normal or close to normal blood sugar control, the odds of having a healthy baby and pregnancy match that of a non-diabetic woman.

The key to success is forming a tight support system, preferably before you find out your pregnant or even start trying. Who should be on your team? All the members you currently have-your diabetes doctor, dietitian, certified diabetes educator-plus a few more, namely your obstetrician and a maternal-fetal-medicine specialist, such as a high-risk OB or perinatologist.

Like many type 2 diabetics, my primary care physician managed my diabetes, and oral meds-along with diet and exercise, of course-were my primary methods for managing my blood sugar. When I told my PCP about my plans to TTC, she recommended I see an endocrinologist and warned me that he'd probably want me to start on insulin.

I also met with my Ob/Gyn visit to make sure he's comfortable treating a diabetic pregnancy and get the go ahead to start trying. He explained once I was pregnant, I'd need to maintain tight blood glucose control and would have to be monitored more closely. It wasn't anything I hadn't already read about.

One thing I wasn't expecting, he gave me a prescription for 4 mg of folic acid a day; the daily value is 400 mcg. He explained diabetic women are at greater risk for having a baby with neural tube defects (NTD) and studies show taking 10 times the daily value helps prevent NTD in women who've already had a child with NTD, so as a precautionary measure, he would treat me with extra folic acid.

As a health writer, I tend to be a smug patient. I often feel as though I'm more up-to-date with the latest research, trends and information than my doctor. So to hear my OB tell me something I didn't know, gave me a lot of reassurance that he was up for the job.