Table 7 Considerations for practice and research

Monitoring for optimal glycaemic control

Monitoring for optimal glycaemic control

• Enable women with GDM to attend group teaching for CBG testing and interpretation and include women who have had GDM to share their stories.

• Discuss individual strategies for regular CBG monitoring, food intake and physical activity.

• Encourage partner and family attendance at any clinic or teaching sessions (may need to be offered at evenings or weekends).

• Provide information relating to GDM in a woman’s first language and/or more visually, including ethnic food suggestions.

• Investigate the possibility of community pharmacists’ involvement in teaching CBG testing.

• Explore opportunities for companies to create phone Apps, e.g. for electronic food and activity diaries, recording of CBG results and medication intake.

• Do phone apps have an impact on optimal glycaemic control for women with GDM?

• Does a name change for GDM reduce anxiety in pregnant women?

Dietary intake and exercise for glycaemic control

Dietary intake and exercise for glycaemic control

• Enable easy access to a diabetes dietitian with diet recommendations tailored to an individual woman’s context (cultural, financial, and emotional).

• Engage in meaningful discussions about the content in a food diary and provide multi-modal opportunity for the woman to record the food diary in her first language or enable mobile phone photo collection of food intake.

• Regularly address hunger for women with GDM.

• Encourage a physical activity diary alongside the food diary.

• Consider engaging a physical (activity) therapist for clear in-depth assessment and guidance of exercise that women can incorporate into their daily life.

• Does keeping a physical activity diary impact on glycaemic control?

• Does engaging a physical activity therapist contributes to the understanding and up-take of physical activity for women with GDM?

• Why do women with GDM seem to be hungry despite quality dietary recommendations?

• What affect has self-imposed dietary practices by women with GDM during their pregnancy on long term lifestyle behaviour?

Support for optimal glycaemic control

Support for optimal glycaemic control

• Provide free CBG monitoring equipment, health shuttles and child care when attending clinic appointments and reduce clinic waiting times.

• Consider face-to-face support groups for women with GDM.

• Consider setting up a social media group for women. With current GDM (e.g. Facebook).

• Include regular mental health assessment for women with GDM.

• Provide direct phone access to multi-disciplinary health professionals.

• Limited research available for regular mental health assessment for women with GDM.

• Limited research about the effect of a GDM diagnosis on partners and family members.

• Limited research on how partners and families can best support a woman with GDM in their context.

• Does social media or face-face group support make a difference for women with GDM for maintaining optimal glycaemic control?