Gestational Diabetes
What
is gestational diabetes?
Gestational
diabetes (pronounced jess-tay-shun-ul die-uh-beet-eez) is a type
of diabetes, or high blood sugar, that only pregnant women get.
In fact, the word gestational means pregnant. If a woman gets
high blood sugar when she's pregnant, but she never had high blood
sugar before, she has gestational diabetes. Nearly 135,000 pregnant
women get the condition every year, making it one of the top health
concerns related to
pregnancy.
If
not treated, gestational diabetes can cause problems for mothers
and babies. Some of these problems can be serious.
Why
do some women get gestational diabetes?
Usually,
the body breaks down much of the food you eat into a type of sugar,
called glucose (pronounced gloo-kos). Because glucose moves from
the stomach into the blood, some people use the term blood sugar,
instead of glucose. Your body makes a hormone called insulin (pronounced
in-suh-lin) that moves glucose out of the blood and into the cells
of the body. In women with gestational diabetes, the glucose can't
get into the cells, so the amount of glucose in the blood gets
higher and higher. This is called high blood sugar or diabetes.
What if I don't get treated for gestational diabetes?
Most
women with gestational diabetes have healthy pregnancies and healthy
babies because they control their condition. Without treatment,
mothers with this condition could have very large babies. These
mothers may have a harder time with labor and natural delivery
(through the vagina). Some mothers need surgery to deliver their
bigger babies, which can increase the mother's risk of infection.
Mothers who have their babies by surgery also take a longer time
to recover.
Children
whose mothers had gestational diabetes are at higher risk for
certain health problems:
As
babies, they are at higher risk for Respiratory Distress Syndrome
(RDS), a disease that makes it hard for the baby to breathe.
They
are more likely to be obese (very overweight) as children or
adults, which can lead to other health problems.
They
are at higher risk for getting diabetes, or high blood sugar,
as they get older.
What
are the types of diabetes?
The three main types of diabetes are:
Type
1 diabetes
Type 2 diabetes
Gestational diabetes
More
Diabetes Information:
American
Diabetes Association
What is Diabetes Management