Four Important Points about Gestational Diabetes that can save your newborn – You cannot miss Number Three

Gestational diabetes happens to develop during pregnancy and like other forms of diabetes, it is closely associated with how your cells utilize blood sugar. It can be extremely dangerous for the mother as well as the baby and can have lifelong implications like Type 2 Diabetes. Here are some important points that you ought to know if you are an expecting parent and take appropriate preventive steps in time:

• Causes of gestational diabetes –

• Who can get it and whether you are safe or not

• Risks associated with gestational diabetes and its diagnosis

• Treatment

1. Causes of gestational diabetes:

Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that affects some of pregnant women. As per several researches it has been found out that close to two to ten percent of pregnant women get affected by it. While diabetes involves somewhat complex biochemical reactions in the body, here is a brief explanation of the same.
Your body breaks down food into a simple sugar named glucose, which is utilized as a fuel with the help of a hormone named insulin. However, there are two situations in which glucose can remain underutilized in the body:

• The body does not produce enough insulin
• The body does not respond well to insulin

During pregnancy the body produces certain hormones which make the cells become unresponsive to insulin, thereby interfering in the absorption of glucose in the body. For most pregnant women, this doesn’t mean serious problem as the pancreas secretes enough of it. However, when the pancreas fail to produce the requisite amount of insulin, this results in a problem.
Once the baby is born most of the women do not remain diabetic. But they remain at risk of catching the same during future pregnancy and Type 2 diabetes later on in their lives.

2. Who can get it and whether you are safe or not

Your doctor would recommend blood sugar screening test between Week 24 and Week 28 which determines whether you have gestational diabetes.

Who is at risk?

You can be at risk of gestational diabetes if:

• You are obese (Body Mass Index above 30)
• Your contacted gestational diabetes during previous pregnancy
• There is presence of sugar in your urine
• There is long family history of diabetes in your family
• You are over 35 years of age
• You have high blood pressure

3. Risks associated with gestational diabetes and its diagnosis

There are multiple risks associated with poorly managed gestational diabetes, some of which are mentioned below:

• If there is too much sugar in your blood, it is going to end up in the blood of your baby. This will result in excess production of insulin in his body. Excess sugar and insulin will make your baby put on a lot of weight, which might not be good for his health in the long run.

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