"Body Shaming Midwife"

Midwife diagnosed me with gestational diabetes, even before me meeting them and completing any recent tests. At this point I haven't even completed the oral glucose test. 

I had a blood test at 5 weeks pregnant so they say I have diabetes due to the glucose level. They seemingly did not care that the pathologist made a mistake and labelled the test as "fasting" instead of "non-fasting" making those results in a normal level for non-fasting glucose. They seemingly refused to look at my recent results at 23 weeks pregnant (which are normal fasting glucose levels)- they shrugged their shoulders while rolling their eyes and stated it wont change much. Thankfully my doctor sent me the results, because I had to force the midwife to look at it. After looking, I recall they stated "oh that's normal". They would not update my file to say my glucose levels are normal or contact my doctor about the pathologist mistake, but instead wrote in there that I refused 28/40 blood tests even though I didn't. 

I recall they laughed at me when I said that I do not have diabetes and that is why I refused the diabetes education, especially because I have not done the oral test. They stated "we'll see about that" - then finally talked about doing the oral glucose test.

Here are further statements from them:

Due to your BMI, if you gain weight we don't have enough anesthesia for you - then said it was if I gained 9kg. I have gained 1kg in 23 weeks to the point where my regular doctor kept telling me I needed to gain weight. So, I'm not sure why the midwife had to make this a top priority and say it the way they did.

Then - due to your weight, you will either have a large baby or a tiny baby -  Even though current ultrasounds show that my baby is in the average percentile with no issues. 

While checking the heartbeat, the midwife grabbed a bunch of my stomach without telling me why. 

I felt they became annoyed/patronising when I refused antenatal classes and suggested that I just get my information from blogs. 

They talked about advocating for myself, while ignoring me advocate for myself. 

This was my first midwife experience and it was extremely demeaning and has triggered a lot of my disordered eating beliefs - making me paranoid about eating anything, especially sugar. I felt the whole appointment was just body shaming - they just saw my BMI and created the idea that I strongly have gestational diabetes before any tests or conversations with me or my doctor. 

I have had literally no issues this pregnancy - not even morning sickness. The baby is healthy and growing at a proper rate. I do not understand why the midwife had to make me feel terrible and stress me out over this apparent non-existent diagnosis. They literally just projected their beliefs onto me and I do not want to go back. 

As I understand it, you cannot officially diagnose someone with gestational diabetes without the glucose oral test to confirm. At 5 weeks, I did not even know I was pregnant. Aren't you supposed to at least get an updated blood test to confirm the diagnosis? Isn't misdiagnosing someone before relevant tests a form of malpractice?

I specifically requested to go to Armadale Hospital as I have heard such great things, but so far I am left feeling terrible about myself. 

When I complete the glucose oral test, if it comes back negative for diabetes I will be reporting and following this up with the Midwifery Board of Australia.

After becoming depressed for a couple days due to this, I spoke to other mums and a doula which have stated the midwife should not if treated me like this. They should not have placed high importance on my weight with such judgement- especially not knowing my history.