Festivities and social functions The third sub-theme
overviews particular social constraints around special
occasions such as religious festivals. Most of these events
are accompanied by the provision of high calorie celebratory
foods, which are prohibited on GDM selfmanagement
plans. Although women are not obliged to
eat these foods, food is a large part of the celebration
and women felt they missed out when unable to participate
in the celebratory meal. Leni explains:
I’m myself Indian and we have lot of Indian sweets
and that sort of thing. When I didn’t know that I was
diabetic I was eating sweets as well, like Indian proper
sweets. And just the religious festivals and eating
certain foods, but now I’ve stopped that as well.
Actually it’s not compulsory. It’s up to you if you want
to eat it or not. You just feel a bit out of things. . .
Leni