Buntis na Walang Diabetes, Kanais-nais: A Webinar on Gestational Diabetes

“Ang buntis na walang diabetes ay talagang kanais-nais!”

Last August 29, 2020, the Institute for Reproductive Health Philippines (IRH PH) organized a webinar on gestational diabetes from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm via Zoom and Facebook Live for the Accessing GDM Care Project. This project, in partnership with the World Diabetes Foundation, aimed to pioneer a model for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) care in the local government settings. One of the project’s main objectives is to promote intensive GDM awareness, prevention and control among health practitioners and this webinar is a means to further initiate advocacy among health care professionals.

With the theme “Buntis na walang diabetes, kanais-nais”, this webinar was free and open to all, but the majority who attended were health professionals. Out of the 260 registered attendees, 87 watched from Zoom while 173 watched from Facebook Live. According to the Accessing GDM Care Project Page Insights Summary, the video post also had 125 likes and reactions, 145 comments, 31 shares, 1,600 views, 2,369 people reached, and 1,286 engagements.

The invited resource speakers for the webinar talked about GDM diagnosis and management. Dr. Iris Thiele Isip-Tan presented an overview of GDM, while Mr. Jake Brandon Andal presented the nutrition recommendations for GDM. An open forum discussion with the two speakers directly followed the presentations. Right after the open forum, IRH PH also officially did a public launch of the project’s GDM awareness video.

With the webinar already over, the participants shared with IRH PH their personal feedbacks of how they learned more about GDM, its risk factors and management as well as understood the Accessing GDM Care Project, its goals, vision, and clinical pathway. Many of them also mentioned how they were motivated to support the project.

The webinar replay can still be viewed on Facebook (www.facebook.com/AccessingGDMCare) and in Youtube (http://bit.ly/GDMCare).