Families, through Ballarat Health Services, are taking part in a long-term Environmental Determinants of Islet Autoimmunity study into pregnancy and type one diabetes. The international study investigates how environmental and lifestyle factors relate to diabetes, starting with pregnancy.

Midwife and paediatric diabetes educator Belinda Moore said BHS was increasingly absorbing high-risk pregnancy cases from across the region because places like Horsham, Ararat and Stawell did not have facilities for women with diabetes or babies with low sugar.

Ms Moore said there was a lot of public attention on type two diabetes awareness and prevention, that not enough was really known about type one. This was despite more adults and teenagers starting to develop the disease.

Ballarat mum Rhiannan Pitts developed type one diabetes two and a half years ago. Ms Pitts had just arrived home from Europe really sick with a virus. She was soon thirsty and tired – key indicators for type one diabetes – but wants to know how she developed the disease and if her children were at risk.

Type one diabetes results from the destruction of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Effects on these cells, before diabetes develops, can be detected by measuring antibodies in the blood.

The study is following: preganant women with type one diabetes; men with type one diabetes whose partner is pregnant; pregnant women who have a child with type one diabetes; and, babies less than six months old whose parents or siblings have type one diabetes.

This project was initially funded under the then-Labor Government under the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Ballarat MP and federal opposition health spokesperson Catherine King said it was an easy way for mothers and families in regional Victoria a simple way to take part.

“Treatment and technology in treatment for diabetes is improving but it’s important to understand better how this disease works and develops,” Ms King said.

“Particularly for young women, there are increased risks in pregnancy, but this is a condition you have your whole life...Technology can be a great advantage in treatment, but this is about trying to find a prevention.”

Details: endia.org.au

DEVELOPING type one diabetes was a shock for Ballarat mum Eleasha Kohn. She had gestational diabetes through her first two pregnancies, but after baby number three the condition did not disappear the same way.

Ms Kohn said diagnosis had effectively changed her whole lifestyle.

Concern for her children, and keen for a better understanding into the autoimmune disease, Ms Kohn signed up to be a case study in an international study into the little-known triggers for type one diabetes.

“I’ve always worried about my children developing it, because they are at a slightly higher risk,” Ms Kohn said. 

“Anything I can do to help in ways to prevent diabetes is important.”

The long-term Environmental Determinants of Islet Autoimmunity study will check in with the Kohn family every three months until baby Briella is two years old, then every six months after.

Ms Kohn said the family had the flexibility to offer as much or little about their lifestyle as they wanted in each period – but she felt it was just important to be involved.