Ketones during pregnancy

[Cat 10]

I'm type 2 and 30 weeks pregnant. I'm on insulin, my results are generally on target and my most recent HBA1C was 5.9. At my last hospital visit, one of the printouts in my file said I had '++' ketones in my urine. Why would that be happening?

[e||ement 10]

have you asked your doctor?

 

i'm really not sure...sorry i'm not much help.

 

i have heard that ketones are common in pregnancy, even in non-diabetics, so perhaps it's nothing to worry about.

 

hope you find out soon!

[ZoraP 10]

Ketones are fairly common in pregnancy, and if you're eating a low-carb diet they're even more likely to happen. There's a lot of debate about whether or not this is harmful to the fetus, but most doctors recommend trying to eat enough carbs to keep the level of ketones low. You can buy Ketostix testing strips and test yourself every morning to see what your levels are.

 

That said, you're already in the home stretch and such things are less likely to harm your baby now than they would have in the first trimester. I had small and sometimes moderate levels of ketones daily in my third trimester and my baby is perfect.

[FarmerCathy 10]

The only thing that my midwife had told me with my last pregnancy is that you don't want to go into labor when spilling a lot of keytones because your spilling energy essentially. You don't want to want to go into labor with low energy. I would talk to your doc and see what they can do to help.