Gestational diabetes

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The changes in hormones during pregnancy can affect the way glucose is metabolised in the the body. Gestational diabetes occurs when the level of glucose (sugar) in a pregnant woman’s blood is so high that her body is unable to produce enough insulin to absorb it all. Hyperglycaemia (high blood sugar) is often caused by overeating, being unwell, or not taking enough insulin.

It’s estimated that around 2-7% of pregnant women are affected by gestational diabetes. You may be at an increased risk if you or your family has a history of diabetes; if you have previously had a big baby; or if you have a BMI of more than 27.

Measures to take
If you are found to have an increased chance of developing gestational diabeties in pregnancy or if glucose is found in urine during your routine antenatal checks, you may be offered a glucose tolerance test to check for diabetes.

It’s essential to counterbalance the effects of diabetes, whether you are pregnant or not, and whether it’s insulin-dependent (type 1) diabetes or non insulin-dependent (type 2) diabetes.

The solutions vary depending on the severity, but it’s essential to make changes to your diet and increase the amount of exercise you take. You might need to take insulin in the form of a small injection in the stomach, thigh or arm. Additionally, you will need to have more antenatal check-ups.

Complications
There are complications than can occur as a result of gestational diabetes. Any changes in mum’s blood composition means changes to baby’s too, so if mum has too much glucose in her blood, there will be too much glucose in baby’s blood. This can cause the baby to grow larger than normal because the glucose is converted to fat and stored.

There is a risk of complications which can be serious if the diabetes is not monitored correctly. Amongst these problems is difficult labour, which is why Caesarean delivery is more common in mums who haven’t been able to stabilise their diabetes.

In most cases, gestational diabetes disappears once the baby is born. After childbirth, women who have had the condition will be monitored, even if everything seems to have returned to normal, because they run a greater risk of developing diabetes later in life.