Pregnancy and Diabetes

Transcript

“The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend that all women have an oral glucose tolerance test to look for gestational diabetes. It’s usually assessed somewhere between 24 and 28 weeks. Up to 10% of pregnancies can be impacted by gestational diabetes, which can sometimes go along with gestational hypertension or high blood pressure, but not always. And when you have gestational diabetes or a woman has gestational diabetes, it means that she has a higher level of blood sugar. And when there’s a higher level of blood sugar, there’s a higher level of insulin, which crosses the placenta and is essentially a growth factor for the baby. So the baby could be big, could be so big that you need to have a cesarean section, or there could be blood sugar controls issues with the baby as well. So monitoring for gestational diabetes and having it appropriately treated in pregnancy will help you have the best outcome for you and the baby.

Now, if you have gestational diabetes, it indicates that you may develop type two diabetes later in life. About 50% of women who have gestational diabetes will end up with type two diabetes. So what you can do about that is be on the lookout, have yourself assessed or screened after your pregnancy, six to 12 weeks later, and then regularly thereafter maintain a normal body weight, because that is also linked to type two diabetes that may increase your risk and eat healthy and exercise healthy. And just get yourself back to your pre pregnancy health after the delivery of your baby.”