Self‐management experience of first‐time diagnosed gestational diabetes mellitus: A focus group interview

AIM: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) has become the most common complication in women during pregnancy in Taiwan. Since several clinical trials have demonstrated benefits of aggressive treatment, which rely heavily on self‐management. The present study was conducted to explore the self‐management experience of women with first‐time diagnosed GDM. DESIGN: A qualitative descriptive approach was applied to conduct this study. METHODS: Purposive sampling was used to recruit patients with first‐time diagnosed GDM from the maternity outpatient clinics of medical centre in Taiwan. A total of three focus groups interviews with 22 women were conducted to collect the data. Content analysis was applied to analyse the data. RESULTS: Four themes were identified: (1) unexpectedly having a high‐risk pregnancy, (2) different perceptions for self‐management, (3) implementation predicament of self‐management and (4) maternal duty to ensure the safety of mother and child.