Diabetic moms

WE AT JOSLIN Diabetes Center read with interest Alex Beam's Dec. 20 column "Radio daze" (Living/Arts), which included references to the genetics of type 1 diabetes and issues related to people with type 1 diabetes having children. While it is true that the late Dr. Elliott P. Joslin at one point advised people with type 1 diabetes not to intermarry, that was in 1959. Amazing progress has been made since then both in terms of knowledge and dramatically improved outcomes for women with type 1 diabetes who give birth, increasing the chance of a successful birth from only 56 percent in 1924 (two years after the discovery of insulin) to 90 percent in 1974 and 97 percent presently.

Excellent progress has been made in the care of pregnant women with diabetes, and babies born to women with type 1 diabetes generally have an excellent prognosis, when blood glucose levels are in good control prior to conception and throughout pregnancy.

We also would like to emphasize the relatively low risk of offspring of people with type 1 diabetes developing the disease -- 1 to 4 percent risk if the mother has type 1 diabetes, and 10 percent risk if the father has the disease.

DR. FLORENCE BROWN
Boston

The writer is co-director of the Joslin-Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Diabetes and Pregnancy Program.