Gestational diabetes
About 4% of all pregnant women are affected by Gestational diabetes - approximately 135,000 cases in the United States alone every year. Let’s say you are 28 weeks pregnant, and your health care provider has just told you that you have gestational diabetes.
Should you be concerned ?
In a word: yes. Proper concern means a lot for your health and the health of your baby.
What is gestational diabetes?
Pregnant women who have never had diabetes before but who have above normal blood sugar (glucose) levels during pregnancy are defined as having gestational diabetes. About 4% of all pregnant women are affected by Gestational diabetes - approximately 135,000 cases in the United States alone every year.
The cause of gestational diabetes is unknown, but there are some clues. The placenta supports the baby as it grows. Hormones from the placenta help the baby’s normal development. These hormones also obstruct the action of the mother's insulin in her body. This is called insulin resistance making it hard for the mother's body to use insulin. She may require up to three times as much insulin as normal.
Gestational diabetes starts when your body is not able to create and utilize all the insulin needed during pregnancy. Without enough insulin, glucose is unable to leave the blood and be converted to energy. Glucose then builds up in the blood to abnormally high levels. This situation is called hyperglycemia.
How gestational diabetes can affect your baby
Gestational diabetes affects the mother late in the pregnancy, after the formation of the baby's body, but while the baby is still growing. Due to this, gestational diabetes fortunately does not cause the types of birth defects often seen in babies whose mothers had diabetes prior to pregnancy.
Untreated or inadequately controlled gestational diabetes can harm your baby. When you have gestational diabetes, your pancreas works overtime to manufacture insulin. The insulin does not reduce your blood glucose levels. Insulin does not traverse the placenta, but glucose and other nutrients do so extra blood glucose goes through the placenta, giving the baby elevated blood glucose levels. This causes the baby's pancreas to manufacture added insulin to get free of the blood glucose. Because the baby is then getting more energy than required to grow and develop, that extra energy is stored as fat.
This can set in motion macrosomia, also known as "fat" baby. Babies with macrosomia face health challenges, including injury to their shoulders during delivery. Because of the additional insulin manufactured by the baby's pancreas, newborns may have very low blood glucose levels when born and are also at greater threat for respiratory problems. Babies with excess insulin become children who are vulnerable to obesity and adults who are vulnerable to type 2 diabetes.
