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Gestational diabetes is a common condition of pregnancy where a woman has high blood sugars during the pregnancy but didn’t have high blood sugars before becoming pregnant. It can often mean, however, that a woman is prone to diabetes in her future but this is not universal.

Most women find out they have gestational diabetes because they have a special test done in diabetes called a one hour glucose tolerance test or “1 hr GTT”. This involves drinking around 50 grams of glucose in the doctor’s office. The blood sugar is tested one hour after drinking the liquid. If this test is elevated further tests are performed to confirm the diagnosis of gestational diabetes.

Women with gestational diabetes normally just need to watch their weight gain and their sugar intake while the doctor does closer monitoring of the pregnancy. Very rarely, the woman will need to take insulin during the pregnancy to keep the blood sugar down.

The biggest complication of gestational diabetes is that of having infants which are larger for their gestational age. Large babies have a higher incidence of having to be born by Cesarean section and there is a higher risk of birth trauma or complications. Just because the infant is big doesn’t mean the infant is mature. The baby can weigh ten pounds but still be born with immature lungs.

There are more problems with the pregnancy in gestational diabetes. Frequent tests called fetal non-stress tests must be done to make sure the baby is still healthy. Anytime the non-stress test is not showing normal fetal activity, the infant may have to be delivered early, even if he or she is not particularly full term yet.

After the pregnancy complicated by gestational diabetes, the infant can have problems with very low blood sugar. This is because its pancreas has been putting out insulin in high amounts during the pregnancy-amounts of insulin that are not needed after the baby is born. The blood sugar can become so dangerously low that the baby will need to have intravenous sugar for a period of time until the pancreas settles down. In milder cases, the blood sugar is monitored carefully while the infant is fed formula as early as possible to bring the blood sugar up.

Babies born from mothers with gestational diabetes will have a higher risk for breathing problems after birth. After a few days of oxygen and monitoring, the baby generally resolves without incident. As the baby is born fat, it is at risk for developing obesity of childhood and all of the complications that go with that. As adults, these children are at risk for developing gestational diabetes or type II diabetes themselves.

Once a woman has gestational diabetes, she is at risk for developing the condition again. She is also at risk for developing type II diabetes. If she gets pregnant without controlling her type II diabetes, there is a higher risk of birth defects in the developing infant who was exposed to higher than normal blood sugars during key stages of embryonic development.

If your blood sugar level first becomes too high when you are pregnant, you have gestational diabetes. It usually goes away after the baby is born.

High blood sugar can cause problems for you and your baby. Your baby may grow too large, which can cause problems during delivery.
Your baby may also be born with low blood sugar. But with treatment, most women with gestational diabetes are able to control their blood sugar and give birth to healthy babies.

Risk Factors
In gestational diabetes, blood sugar levels return to normal after delivery. However, the woman faces a higher lifelong risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and her baby is also more likely to develop the disease later in life. Gestational diabetes is believed
to be associated with:

·    larger babies, and thus an increased chance of delivery by caesarean section
·    infant respiratory distress syndrome,
·    low blood sugar levels at birth, and
·    prolonged newborn jaundice.

What causes gestational diabetes?
As the pregnancy progresses, the mother’s energy needs increase. Coupled with this, the placenta produces hormones that help the baby grow and develop. These hormones also block the action of the mother’s insulin. This is called insulin resistance. The pregnant woman needs extra insulin so the glucose can get from the blood into the cells where it is used for energy. From about 24 weeks, insulin needs in pregnancy can be two or three times higher than normally required.

If the body is unable to meet this requirement, then diabetes develops Ante-natal Care
·    Ante-natal care should be hospital-based, from a multi-disciplinary team
·    Individualise insulin regimens and recommend 4-times daily glucose monitoring.
·    Aim to maintain glucose 4-7 mmol/L and HbA1c within the normal non-diabetic range.
·    Remember insulin requirements increase progressively from the 2nd trimester until the last month of gestation, when a slight fall-off may be noted

Why there is a need to take care of gestational diabetes

Gestational diabetes can harm you and your baby, so you need to consider about it seriously and start caring at once. The main aim of gestational diabetes treatment is to keep blood glucose levels equal to those of normal pregnant women. It needs a planned meal and scheduled physical activity, even blood glucose testing and insulin injections if required. If gestational diabetes is taken care off properly, reduces the risk of a cesarean section birth that high weight babies may require.

Diagnosis
The guidelines for diagnosing GDM in Australia are essentially unchanged from those recommended for use in Australasia in 1991.22

Although there are no uniform international criteria for the diagnosis of GDM, commonly used criteria are those of O’Sullivan and Mahan23 and the World Health Organization (WHO).24 One problem with the development of absolute diagnostic criteria is the lack of evidence that perinatal mortality is increased in pregnancies associated with mild degrees of hyperglycaemia.

New drug for gestational diabetes
Doctors have proven the safety of anti-diabetic drug Metformin, and found the tablet has no adverse affects for mother or child.
Gestational diabetes affects five per cent of pregnancies, but that number is several times higher for indigenous women.

Gestational diabetes is one of the three types of diabetes, aside from type 1 and type 2. This afflicts non-diabetic pregnant women during the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy (weeks 24 and 28) and the symptoms are not usually specific and typically the same with that of other diabetes.

As the period of pregnancy progresses, the placenta which provides sustenance to the baby while inside the mother’s womb produces more hormones. These hormones are blocking other hormones like prolactin, progesterone, cortisol, estrogen and lactogen resulting to insulin resistance.

The effect is gestational diabetes once the pancreas fails to produce the necessary insulin to transport the glucose (sugar) in the bloodstream to the muscle, fat and liver cells for body fuel. Gestational diabetes normally vanishes after giving birth but leaves the mother susceptible to type 2 diabetes.

Pregnant women may experience the common symptoms like:

• Frequent urination
• Abrupt weight gain
• Always feeling tired
• Dizziness especially when standing up
• Feeling hungry most of the time
• Blurred vision
• Urinary tract and vaginal infections

Quite a number of pregnant women are affected by gestational diabetes ranging from 3% to 5%. The women who have the most risk factors are those who are:

1. More than 30 years old at the time of pregnancy,
2. Suffering from overweight or obesity
3. With a family background of diabetes
4. With history of having given birth to a child over 9 pounds
5. With history of having given birth to a child with birth defect
6. Ascertained to have plenty of amniotic fluid,
7. With gestational diabetes in previous pregnancy
8. With high blood pressure

If the symptoms of gestational diabetes are already present, it can be diagnosed via glucose tolerance test starting on week 24 through week 28 or on the 13th week if the doctor sees that there is a risk that gestational diabetes will develop.

The glucose tolerance test requires the expectant mother to drink a solution of glucose (sugar). Blood will be taken from the arm’s vein for checking of blood glucose level. It is assumed that no gestational diabetes exists if the blood glucose level is less than 140 mg/dl. On the other hand, if it is higher, a three-hour glucose tolerance test is needed.

The expectant mother will be allowed to eat 150 grams of carbohydrates, at the least, three days before the test. The objective is to get the fasting glucose level which will be compared with the normal blood sugar level to arrive at a conclusion whether there is gestational diabetes or not.

If any pregnant woman suspects that she has the symptoms of gestational diabetes, she should immediately go to her doctor for proper medical check-up. Gestational diabetes is not life-threatening and can be treated by having a planned diet, exercise, possible daily insulin injection, maintaining an ideal pregnancy weight and constant monitoring of glucose level.

Alvin Hopkinson is a leading health researcher in the area of natural remedies and diabetes natural treatment. Discover how you can reverse your diabetes for good using proven and effective home remedies, all without using harmful medications or drugs. Visit his site now at http://www.minusdiabetes.com