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Gestational Diabetes
You are 72 weeks into your pregnancy. Your physician has just told you that you have gestational diabetes. Is gestational diabetes a threat to your health?While you should not be alarmed, the answer is yes. A good health care plan that focuses on gestational diabetes will mean a lot for your health and the baby's health.
What is Gestational Diabetes?
Gestational diabetes occurs in pregnant women who have never had diabetes before who have high blood glucose levels during pregnancy. Gestational diabetes afflicts about 5% of females who are pregnant. About 140, 000 cases of gestational diabetes are observed in the U.S. yearly.
The cause of gestational diabetes is unknown, but there are theories. The placenta supports the baby during his/her growth. Hormones from the mother are used for baby development. But the hormones also block the action of the mother's insulin. This event is labeled insulin resistance. Insulin resistance makes it difficult for the mother's body to utilize insulin. She may need up to four times as much insulin.
Gestational diabetes begins when the mother's body makes insufficient insulin needed to support her and her baby. Without sufficient insulin, glucose cannot be absorbed from the blood to the cells to be converted into energy. Glucose accumulates in the blood to high levels. This condition is known as hyperglycemia.
Does gestational diabetes endanger your baby?
Gestational diabetes effects the mother in the late stages of pregnancy, after the baby's body is well defined, but while the baby is still growing. Because of this, gestational diabetes does not cause the type of birth defects seen in the babies of mothers with the more common forms of diabetes.
However, untreated gestational diabetes can hurt your baby. When you have gestational diabetes, blood glucose levels rise, and these high levels of blood glucose may pass into the placenta. This passage of glucose into the placenta may give the baby high blood glucose levels. The baby must now make extra insulin to lower its blood glucose levels. Since the body is getting more energy than it needs to develop, the extra glucose is converted to fat. This can lead to a disorder called macrosomnia.
A macrosomnia baby is also known as a "fat baby." Macrosomnia baby face health risks like damaged shoulders, high blood glucose levels at birth and breathing problems. "Fat babies" are at risk for future obesity and type 2 diabetes as adults.
Click here for more information about treating gestational diabetes.
Click below for some of our links about diabetes related problems and treatment options.
