Table 4.
Meaning unit, condensations, subthemes included in the third theme (being left alone to struggle with GDM)
| Meaning unit | Condensation | Subtheme |
| ‘I’m particularly afraid of getting diabetes in the future … You may imagine that the disease is getting worse and worse, and in one day you could be like the very sick person that you’d seen.’ (Participant 7) | Have been worrying about or afraid of the negative effects of GDM | Believing GDM should be treated seriously, but feeling distressed |
| ‘I have been seriously controlling my blood glucose, actually it is because I fear… I fear that I would really get diabetes when I was old. I do fear my baby isn’t healthy … I adjusted my diet … I did the regular monitoring of blood glucose … I particularly wanted to control GDM well.’ (Participant 7) | Strive to control GDM | |
| ‘I feel very distressed about diet control. I am easy to be hungry. Even though I am hungry, I cannot eat … I can’t see other people eating, so I have to go away if I see it. But I will still think about the food after I go away, and then come back to have a look … I feel sad sometimes.’ (Participant 7) | Feel distressed | |
| ‘I asked the doctor if I needed to test my blood glucose again when I did my next antenatal care. She said that it didn’t matter, and let us see in the next month. After one month, I forgot to ask for checking my blood glucose when I came, she also forgot it. ’ (Participant 21) ‘My mother and other family think that many people got GDM which is very common, and GDM doesn’t matter … They always expect that I eat more foods … They fear that my nutrition isn’t enough because they feel that I don’t eat this and that, and I have requirements on diet as well. They feel that I am too tense because I always very pay attention to many things during my pregnancy.’ (Participant 5) |
Be affected by the view of ‘GDM not mattering’ from professionals and people around them | Believing GDM is not a severe illness, but at the same time experiencing helplessness |
| ‘I think gestational diabetes isn’t a big illness, but I want to be healthy … I controlled according to doctor’s advice … Doctor said the same thing every time. She said that you paid attention to your diet. … I try not to eat if I am not hungry. I only eat cucumber and tomato instead of fruit, because they contain little sugar. No way. I have tried my best to control it, but the values still aren’t in the normal range.’ (Participant 40) | Control GDM based on the received information, but feel helplessness | |
| ‘When the doctor showed me the test report, she didn’t tell me that I got diabetes. She only said that the value was a little high. So I didn’t pay attention to it.’ (Participant 36) ‘My family thinks that GDM is nothing. Every day, they give me the fruit and said, “Eat! It doesn’t matter.”…’ (Participant 13) |
Be affected by the neglectful attitude of health professionals and people around | Believing GDM is nothing to worry about, and ignoring the seriousness of having GDM |
| ‘My sister-in-law got gestational diabetes when she was pregnant. She doesn’t have diabetes after she gave birth. Her baby is also healthy. Actually, the influence of gestational diabetes isn’t big.’ (Participant 13) | Be affected by seeing healthy babies whose mother had GDM | |
| ‘My physical body doesn’t have any change, so I don’t take gestational diabetes as a severe problem … I think that gestational diabetes isn’t a disease at all. … I didn’t visit doctor.’ (Participant 8) | Be affected by feeling no physical body symptoms | |
| ‘I don’t know what influence gestational diabetes will bring to me.’ (Participant 8) | Don’t know the future influence of GDM |
GDM, gestational diabetes mellitus.