Glucose Screening when You Are Pregnant, Should You Have it Done?

When you become pregnant there are many tests that you will taking in order to make sure that you and your little baby are healthy, one of these tests is the Glucose Screening Exam that tests for Gestational Diabetes. Gestational Diabetes is a very serious case of diabetes that occurs only when a woman is pregnant. The test can be very time consuming but is necessary to ensuring a healthy delivery for your baby.

What the test is all about:
The Glucose Screening is usually performed in between the 24th and 28th week of pregnancy. This test usually takes about one hour and fifteen minutes to complete. It often will take a little longer depending on the woman and her doctor. The test begins in the morning when you have not eaten or drank anything in the past twelve hours, you then will be given a small container of about twelve ounces of orange liquid and are told to finish this very sweet drink in under five minutes. It can be very hard since the drink itself is very cold and full of sugar, but if you do not think of it as a bad drink but as something that needs to be done for your baby you will be done with it sooner than you think. After you have finished the drink you will stay seated in the room you were assigned or the waiting room for exactly one hour. At this time yo are not allowed to walk around or exercise for the reason of you burning off the glucose that was just ingested. As soon as that hour is up, you are brought back to give a blood sample that is taken from the main vein in your arm and sent home. This process is long but well worth it if you are in fact diabetic.

When the results are given:
After you have been sent home from the Glucose screening your blood is sent off to the lab that your doctor uses to be checked for Gestational Diabetes. The results usually come back to you in under a week but can take longer depending on the lab and your doctors office.