The Business of Being Born Message Board

Q: I am pregnant with #3 and failed my one hour glucose test. I’m scheduled for the 3 hour test and was wondering if instead of drawing blood from my vein 4 times, if they could just prick my finger and get the same results. (This is how they found out my count was too high in the first place.) My veins are really hard to find and I nearly passed out last time they drew blood.

A: The norms for the 3 hour GTT are based on venous blood, not peripheral blood from a fingerstick. Venous blood is definitely considered the standard for this test, and while it’s a drag going through the test, it’s the only way to have an accurate diagnostic test.

Carolyn Havens Niemann, CNM
Princeton Midwifery Care