Finding time for everything
Finding time for everything was identified as a major
challenge for most women. This difficulty related to the
busyness of the women’s lives as they juggled work,
household chores and family obligations. There were
two elements to this sub-theme: dietary self-management
and additional requirements. Dietary self-management, in
particular, represented an enormous time challenge to
women, requiring time to learn about food values in order
to create nutritious and appealing meals. For some
women, like Leanne, this meant learning to cook, for the
first time:
Like where do you find the time. . . having to go from
being able to buy foods (ready cooked) and having to
actually think about it, prepare it and cook healthy
food. Yeah, lots of processed food (previously). . .
That’s my biggest change, probably, going from never
cooking. Leanne
Most women felt they needed some time to adjust to
their new eating regime, and initially, it was difficult to
even remember the GDM self-management tasks
required. Kate explains:
Because I do shift work, I’ve found I’ve had to
make a really strict monitoring sort of system. So
I set alarms on my phone every time I have
something to eat, so I remember to do the two
hours afterwards [BGL], otherwise I’ll just forget.
And I set a final alarm to go off before I go to
bed so that I can remember to take the night time
[insulin]. . .Kate
Having GDM meant additional requirements such as
extra clinic visits to specialists and dieticians. Very often
appointments could not be arranged for the woman’s
convenience:
Sometimes . . . I have to actually go back there [clinic]
twice a week, I think the dieticians only, you can only
book them on a Friday. . .but the obstetrician, only
. . .on a Monday. . . so that is hard with work. . . Flora
Participants also identified finding time to exercise as
a particular difficulty, although additional exercise was
recommended as part of their diabetes self-management
plans. Leanne explains:
. . . the doctor said to walk for an hour after meals. I
mean, I start (work) at seven and finish at three and
then I’ve got to pick my daughter up from school.
Trying to fit that in, it’s just . . . I think, well, God, I’ll
be dead by the time I get back, you know? . . . Leanne