The Program

A BETTER APPROACH FOR GESTATIONAL DIABETES

Ahuva's personalized programs are uniquely crafted to meet the needs of a woman with gestational diabetes.

The result? Outstanding health outcomes in relation to diabetes, adequate nutrition for both mother and baby, as well as emotional wellbeing.

These 5 components result in a well-rounded experience for a woman with gestational diabetes, providing optimum care at each step of the way.

Cultural Considerations

This program works for women from all backgrounds and ethnicities. As it was created by a Frum woman, however, it is perfectly positioned to help other women who follow a Kosher diet, or who have other unique cultural or diet considerations. If you have gestational diabetes, you need to know how to apply the diabetes education to your life. Recipes that you can’t cook or meal ideas that you can’t eat are going to leave you hanging. This program takes a woman’s cultural needs, including Kosher into account, so she can integrate the education seamlessly. Clients also receive help to navigate religious occasions, including Shabbos, Yom Tov, and fast days.

Ease & Simplicity

Pregnant women are busy and tired, and want to implement the necessary lifestyle changes with minimal time and effort. This program focuses on giving simple and structured guidelines as well as many resources to help integrate the treatment plan easily and immediately. A great deal of effort is put into creating resources designed exclusively for individual clients including a constantly growing grocery list, easy recipes, and sample menus.

Hand-Held Support

Gestational diabetes can cause major emotional stress for a pregnant woman. Emotional stress is not only difficult, but has been proven to effect the mother’s health, the baby’s health, and the sugar levels. This program takes a holistic approach by recognizing and addressing this. Here you’ll find personal accessibility and support throughout the pregnancy, including unlimited text support and up to 2 follow up sessions. This program also focuses on empowering and reassuring each woman so she can feel confident and calm throughout her pregnancy.

Individualized Treatments

Gestational diabetes can be strange, because no two women are the same. The body’s reaction to food varies from woman to woman and even from pregnancy to pregnancy. This program is structured to get feedback from each individual clients’ individual state, and then use that feedback to create an individualized treatment plan. An experimentation technique is also incorporated to safely determine how women can integrate the foods that they love. This component is unique and invaluable, because it allows most women to eat more variety than they would imagined possible, all while achieving excellent blood sugar management.

Personalized Motivation

A woman diagnosed with gestational diabetes is often confused about the sudden change that her body has undergone and sometimes even skeptical about the necessity to implement medical recommendations. In this program, women are provided with fascinating visual training of exactly what is going on in the body, inspiring them to make the necessary lifestyle changes because they understand exactly how their actions affect their body.

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The Program

When a woman gets diagnosed with gestational diabetes, her world changes instantly. She is thrown into a world with new terminology, new rules, and a lot of uncertainty. She has to completely adjust her eating habits and her daily routine, all while trying to figure out what this new diagnosis means for her and her baby. Pregnancy is a magical time, filled with beauty and love, and yet, when gestational diabetes is in the picture, the joy can get sucked out.

After working as a registered dietitian for a bit, I met up with so many women who had been diagnosed with gestational diabetes and did not have good care. They were overwhelmed, anxious, and stressed out. They felt their condition was mismanaged, like they were on their own, and they had no one to turn to. This lack of supportive care was exacerbated for orthodox Jewish women, who worked with a registered dietitian who did not understand Kosher, nor the Frum lifestyle, and they had to figure out how to apply all of the medical recommendations in a way that made sense for them.

PART OF THE PROBLEM

Most women who are diagnosed with gestational diabetes have 2 options:

Option #1:

Women with gestational diabetes are often referred to the hospital, and they see a dietitian who does not follow a kosher diet, nor understand the cultural considerations of a frum woman. I spoke with many jewish women who went this route and they shared how difficult this was. They learned the basics of their condition during their appointment, but they were on their own when they tried to figure out how to apply it to their lifestyle and a kosher diet.

Option #2:

Women may also be referred to a dietitian (who may follow a kosher diet) but who does not specialize in gestational diabetes. I have worked with many local dietitians, interned by them, and spoken to them, so I know their approach. The typical approach is to provide the woman with the same I would consider leaving the time frame more vague minute initial consultation that they provide for other conditions, and then provide a generic treatment plan and little support.

Most other health conditions, like standard diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure, ect. Have pretty generic recommendations that can be applied to most people. The changes do not need to be made overnight, and there is much less pressure on the patient. Therefore, the approach is to give a short consultation like a 45 minute initial appointment during which a generic treatment plan is given. This typical nutritional intervention approach does not work for gestational diabetes for 2 primary reasons.

This time slot does not allow for adequate training about the condition, how to manage it successfully, and to calm and reassure the woman that everything will truly be fine. Particularly because these changes need to be made overnight.
Gestational diabetes is very unique in that it varies greatly between woman to woman and even between pregnancy to pregnancy

“My dream for every woman diagnosed with gestational diabetes is that she is reassured that she will have a low-stress pregnacy and healthy baby, while receiving hand-held support through each step of the way.”

AHUVA KOHN
RDN Registered Dietitian Nutritionist