Gestational Diabetes
Sutter Diabetes Center
Sweet Success, part of Sutter's Diabetes Care Center, is a program for pregnant women who were previously known to have diabetes or who develop diabetes during pregnancy. The program was established in 1985. Sutter Diabetes Care Center is the home to the California Diabetes and Pregnancy Program (CDAPP) Regional Team. The CDAPP team serves 23 counties in northeastern California. CDAPP is funded by a grant from the State and Federal Department of Health's Maternal and Child Health services to train affiliates throughout the area in providing care to Sweet Success patients. Sutter Diabetes Care Center is proud to have the expertise of these team members on staff to provide patient care services.
Capabilities
The center emphasizes a multidisciplinary team approach to patient care to develop a personalized education and treatment plan to help the women have a healthy pregnancies and healthy babies. Women who have diabetes prior to pregnancy or develop diabetes during pregnancy can be referred to Sweet Success by their primary care doctor. They are provided with individualized education and counseling during regular visits throughout their pregnancy by nurses, social workers/stress counselors, and dietitians. The nurse educator works with the woman to provide information and guidance to help the woman understand about diabetes self-management. The social worker/stress counselor helps the women deal with the added stress of diabetes during pregnancy and with accessing local resources needed by the women and their families. A dietitian specializing in perinatal health works closely with each patient to set up goals and meal plans. Sweet Success also offers postpartum follow-up. If signs of diabetes continue, further recommendations are provided.
Training in the use of insulin and oral medications and blood sugar monitoring is provided as needed. This is a well-orchestrated inpatient/outpatient program designed to optimize blood sugar control to achieve healthy pregnancies and healthy babies and reduce the lifelong risk of development of type 2 diabetes for the women with gestational diabetes and the offspring of women in our program.