Gestational Diabetes During Pregnancy

Gestational Diabetes During Pregnancy

It is a disease in which your blood glucose, or sugar, levels are too high. When you are pregnant, too much glucose is not good for your baby. Out of every 100 pregnant women in the United States, between three and eight get gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes is diabetes that happens for the first time when a woman is pregnant. Gestational diabetes goes away when you have your baby, but it does increase your risk for having diabetes later.
Factors
Women who have had gestational diabetes are at higher risk for type 2 diabetes later in life. This risk increases to over 60% if a woman is overweight.
Having a family history of diabetes
Being overweight
Being over age 25
You previously had gestational diabetes
You previously had a stillbirth
You had a previous baby weighing more than 9 pounds at birth

Preventing complications
Pregnancy is a time of promise and expectation, but it can also raise the possibility for some women that they will develop gestational diabetes mellitus. Finding out you have gestational diabetes mellitus can be very frightening. Not only do you have to deal with all the emotions (the ups and the downs) and the questions that come with being pregnant, but also the uncertainty of this new-found condition.

Fortunately, as with all types of diabetes, there are many well-informed health professionals to help answer your questions and to guide you through this very important time in your life. The more you know, the easier it is to accept and make the necessary changes for a successful and happy pregnancy. Gestational diabetes mellitus is defined as high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) with onset or first recognition during pregnancy. In Canada, gestational diabetes mellitus is higher than previously thought, varying from 3.7% in non-Aboriginal women to 8–18% in Aboriginal women.

The risk to your baby from gestational diabetes is not as severe as the risk to your baby if you have diabetes prior to getting pregnant. Because your baby is done forming by the time gestational diabetes begins, birth defects are not probable, but there are other problems that may occur. As glucose can go through the placenta to the baby it gives an excess energy supply to your baby.
Since your baby doesn’t need the extra energy, the energy from the glucose is changed into fat, which results in a large birth weight for your baby. Having an overweight baby at birth can lead to problems when it travels down the birth canal, including possible shoulder injuries, and breathing problems.