Gestational Diabetes
Gestational diabetes occurs in women during the pregnancy.
Nowadays, in the developed world, there are about 3% to 5% from the pregnant women who are going to suffer from diabetes.
These women have never had diabetes before and probably will never have diabetes after the birth, but during pregnancy they have high blood sugar levels.
Most of these women are overweight or have a family history of diabetes. During the critical first stages of the pregnancy, those women who are going to suffer from diabetes have normal blood sugar levels. This form of diabetes usually becomes apparent during the 24th to 28th weeks of pregnancy, but the interesting fact is that after the birth almost all of the women who were sick (about 98%) will no longer have diabetes.
Health providers don't know for sure what are the causes for diabetes during the pregnancy.
One of the clues is that hormones that help the embryo to develop also block the action of the insulin and glucose can't enter the mother cells.
Can any complications appear?
Complications caused by diabetes during pregnancy might appear. These are the regular known complications of type 1 and 2 diabetes.
These complications can usually be managed by careful attention to nutrition, physical activity and blood sugar levels.
The diabetes control should be supervised by your medical doctor to keep your blood sugar levels in the normal range (and to take insulin if necessary).
Can it harm my baby?
Because diabetes during the pregnancy occurs in the late stages of the pregnancy, there are almost no cases of birth defects.
However, if the mother has high blood sugar levels, her baby gets high blood sugar levels too.
This causes the baby's body to make extra insulin to remove the blood glucose. The baby gets plenty of sugar, and this is more energy than it needs to grow and develop, the extra energy is stored as fat.
So occurrence of fat babies at women who had pregnancy diabetes is quite common.
In summary, gestational diabetes even if treated well is still considered as a risk, but today the chances for a regular birth are very good.
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