Supporting women with diabetes before, during and after pregnancy

My nursing career began on the wards in an acute unit at the Homerton University Hospital, London, in 2015, while I completed the registration and probationary requirements. My interest then turned to specialisation in diabetes, and by 2018 I was working as a specialist diabetes nurse for Barts Health NHS Trust, at Newham Hospital in London, where I still work today.

The position of antenatal specialist diabetes nurse at Newham Hospital had just been created by Barts Health NHS Trust for treatment of diabetes to begin at the pre-pregnancy stage with women who were living with type 2 diabetes, continuing through each stage of pregnancy, right through to postnatal care.

The importance of matching all the discrete stages of treatment to the London borough of Newham demographic, however, could not be underestimated – as the following data suggest. According to the 2021 Census, the ethnicity spread of the residents in the area was as follows (Office for National Statistics, 2022):