It’s difficult to provide one number for all women. You may find that the blood glucose targets you are given or even the times you are asked to monitor vary from diabetes centre to diabetes centre. You are best guided by the health professional/s managing you. Typically you will check your blood glucose level when you first wake up in the morning and then after meals (either at one or two hours from the start of eating). You may also check after some snacks or before some of your other meals.
If your blood glucose levels are high after some meals you shouldn’t panic and over-restrict what you next eat. Instead, think about whether you accidentally had more carbohydrate than recommended or if there was some other reason that your level may have gone high. If you notice that you are almost always higher than the target you were given then you need to contact your health provider as insulin may be needed to ensure your baby is kept safe from the high blood glucose levels.
Please remember that undereating will not help you avoid taking insulin and is not the answer to high blood glucose levels. In fact it can cause other potential dangers for your baby (and is not healthy for you either. (See ‘ketones’ in our Glossary section.)