An Auckland mum tells John Landrigan why diabetic mothers need Government help.
Lachlan's bright blue eyes light up as he crawls towards us. The 11-month-old does not yet know his young mum is about to put him to bed, nor of the dangers she faced when deciding to have him.
Ruth Hill
was diagnosed with Type-1 diabetes – the less common form of the disease – when she was 8 and has long known her potentially fatal disease would also endanger unborn children.
Before trying to have Lachlan, the Auckland District Health Board lent Mrs Hill an insulin pump. This is a computerised, battery-operated device patients wear which controls the exact amount of insulin delivered.
"I took it because I knew I had to have perfect [blood glucose] control while carrying my baby."
A veritable lifesaver then – we have Lachlan smiling on his mum's lap to prove it – but a lifesaver and life enhancer that is not readily available from all hospitals or to all Type-1 diabetics.
Mrs Hill is now campaigning for all Type-1 diabetics to have full, subsidised access to the devices.
Having always maintained good routines with her insulin shots and eaten the right foods, Mrs Hill found seven injections a day, or 1700 injections a year still did not control her blood sugar levels safely.
Three times in five years, she lapsed into life-threatening comas with her eyesight threatened by pressure on her retina from fluctuating blood sugar levels.
"You don't always pick up the symptoms properly. Increased levels of stress push your sugars up," she says.
Mrs Hill was on the pump for 18 months – three months before her blood sugars were at a safe enough level before trying for Lachlan.
Six weeks after Lachlan was born she had to return the insulin pump to the hospital because it is not mandatory for them to be administered.
With blood sugar levels rising and falling, and the exhaustion of being a new mother, Mrs Hill suffered post-natal depression. "I had no energy to be a good mum. It was heaven being on the pump for 18 months and to go back to the injections was torture. I was having two or three hypos [dangerously low blood glucose episodes] a day."
The pumps cost $7000 and between $150 and $250 to run a month.
After being on a waiting list, Waitemata District Health Board has since given Mrs Hill one of only eight permanent pumps it has.
"It tightened my control of my blood sugars. My energy levels went through the roof. There are so many benefits of using the pump."
Mrs Hill has set up a Facebook page which has more than 1000 members. She's compiled a 20-page document and attached 140 letters of support to send to the Minister of Health.
Tony Ryall should have received this document around the time The Aucklander went to print.
"The benefits are so huge. I want other people to get those benefits as well," she says. "If my son was diagnosed he would have my pump just like that."
Pumping it up
Insulin pumps are about the size of a standard communications beeper.
The pump allows the user to programme many different levels to allow for variation in lifestyle.
Mrs Hill says New Zealand and Brazil are the only first world countries not offering the pumps to all Type-1 diabetics.
What the pump does:
- Controls blood sugar levels accurately
- Circumvents needle phobias
- Improves quality of life by allowing users to play sport and drive a car, etc
- Prevents neo-natal deaths
- Increases user (and users' families) work hours and productivity
- Reduces number of injections per year
- Reduces number of hospital visits
- Reduces risk of coma and death
- Reduces risk of blindness
- Increases energy
For more info, see:
and search for the group page with the term "Seeking Government Funding for Insulin Pumps".
