Understanding Gestational Diabetes

If you’re pregnant, you may need to worry about gestational diabetes: 5% of expecting women have the condition. Watch this video to learn more.

Female 1: Every year in the United States, 135,000 or 5% of pregnant women are diagnosed with Gestational diabetes. Female 2: Gestational diabetes occurs when a woman’s hormones reduce the effectiveness of her insulin. This happens only in pregnant women and is usually diagnosed between the 24th and 28th weeks of pregnancy. Let us look at how Gestational diabetes develops. During pregnancy, the baby’s nutrient center, the placenta produces hormones like estrogen and cortisol that are vital to a child’s development. In the last trimesters, the placenta secretes even more of these hormones to help the babies grow. Unfortunately, these pregnancy hormones can sometimes reduce the effectiveness of the mother’s insulin. Without adequate insulin, blood sugar rises resulting in the condition known as Gestational diabetes. If left untreated, this Gestational diabetes can result in high birth weight, low blood sugar or respiratory difficulties in your baby. Because Gestational diabetes has no discernible symptoms, it is important to know if you are a high-risk candidate for the developing the disease. Most often, Gestational diabetes occurs in women who are over 25, have a family history of Type II diabetes, a previous history of Gestational diabetes, are of non-Caucasian descend, or who are overweigh prior to pregnancy. If you are a high-risk candidate for developing Gestational diabetes, your doctor will screen you by giving you a glucose challenge test. This involves drinking a sugary beverage and measuring blood sugar levels afterwards. If you have Gestational diabetes, you will need to monitor your blood glucose levels several times a day to keep you and your baby healthy during pregnancy. Here are some simple ways to keep blood glucose normal. Gentle exercise like brisk walking or swimming is essential for women with Gestational diabetes because physical activity transfers glucose to the body’s cells. It helps eliminate sugar build-up in the blood. But please ask your doctor before starting any exercise regimen on pregnant. It is also important for women with Gestational diabetes to eat a healthy variety of foods. Usually, regular exercise and a healthy diet will effectively treat Gestational diabetes. If blood sugar remains high however, a doctor may recommend medications or insulin injections to help regulate glucose. After mother delivers, her hormones return to normal levels and Gestational diabetes usually goes away. She should still have a blood glucose test after pregnancy to be sure that her sugar has indeed returned to the proper range. Women who develop Gestational diabetes and pregnancy are at a high-risk of developing Type II diabetes in the future. So they need to be tested periodically throughout their lives. They also need to be diligent to loose excess body weight after delivery. If you are pregnant, ask your doctor about getting tested for Gestational diabetes, doing so, will help ensure a healthy pregnancy for you and a healthy start for your child. Female 1: You want to learn more? Check out other videos and sources on this site for more information.