Help with changing your insulin dose

When to get help with changing your insulin dose

As your baby grows your insulin dose will need to increase, particularly during the last three months of your pregnancy. Adjusting your insulin dose should be done carefully. If you need help, always talk to your Diabetes Specialist Nurse or Diabetes Specialist Midwife, particularly if you are not accustomed to changing your regimen yourself.

Here are a few tips for you to use as you become more confident:

One step at a time

• Don't change lots of things all at once - you will never work out what is going on!
• Only change the dose of one insulin at one time of day and then give it a few days of regular testing to see what happens
• If your levels haven't improved enough then try another adjustment

Little by little

• Don't make large changes in your dose; it is safer to make changes little by little

Don't 'chase your sugars'

• If you regularly have high or low levels at a particular time of day, remember it is the insulin injection you have already taken which is working, not the next injection
• Don't try to correct your levels by changing the next injection (unless your levels are very high, in which case your Diabetes Specialist Nurse or Diabetes Specialist Midwife can advise you)
• Your Diabetes Specialist Nurse or Diabetes Specialist Midwife will help you to choose which insulin dose to alter to improve your levels

Ask for help!

• Your Diabetes Specialist Nurse or Diabetes Specialist Midwife has a lot of experience of insulin dose adjustment
• If you cannot quickly sort your levels out, don't keep on trying on your own, give him or her a call