When you are planning a pregnancy, there are many things you have to consider. You stop drinking alcohol, you take vitamins, you make sure you are as fit and healthy as you can be.
But when you are diabetic, the planning required is just like preparing your body for a race. Athlete Melanie Stephenson-Gray welcomed her baby girl in 2021 and described it as the "most rewarding but hardest thing" she has ever done.
The Cardiff born athlete was diagnosed with diabetes when she was 13-years-old. She said she had all the typical symptoms of the condition: "I was getting up through the night to go for a wee, I was incredibly tired, so much so that I wasn't able to go to school. I had lost about two stone in weight and I was just really thirsty as well. But it isn't really something we considered, just because we didn't realise how much diabetes we had in the family at the time.
