When my husband and I decided to start a family, we knew my diabetes would be an issue. As a health writer, I spent months researching the topic before actually getting down to work. I read every book on the subject and followed every internet link. I figured I know just about everything there is to know to be prepared for the nine months ahead.

For the most part, I take great care of myself-too good if you ask some of my doctors-yet all of my research and obsessive control could never prepare me for the challenges of a diabetic pregnancy.

That's why I'm so grateful to have found a website devote entirely to women like me. On the forums at Diabetic Mommy, women of all types of diabetes in all stages of motherhood from all over the world share wisdom, advice, laughter and tears with one another. (READ MORE)

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. (READ MORE)