Gestational Diabetes, The What and Why

It is important to know the what and why of gestational diabetes because uncontrolled it can cause life long challenges for both the mother and her newborn baby. The good news is, with early detection it can usually be easy to control through diet and exercise. In some cases insulin may need to be prescribed. This is why testing for diabetes has become almost routine in the care of pregnant women.

The What – Gestational diabetes is one of three major types of diabetes. It has two primary differences from type 1 and type 2 diabetes.. The first being, if the first detection of diabetes is identified when a woman is pregnant and the woman has never previously been diagnosed, it is considered gestational diabetes. This condition is usually diagnosed around the twenty-sixth week of pregnancy. When it is diagnosed and mother begins to control her blood sugar levels, usually her pregnancy will progress without difficulty and she will deliver a healthy baby. The second big difference is that after the birth of the baby this condition usually goes away. The risk does still remain that she may develop diabetes in the future. If however, the mother does not control her blood sugar levels gestational diabetes can have a profound negative affect on both the mother and the baby.

The Why – Many hormonal changes take place in a pregnant woman’s body to accommodate the development of the new life inside her. Hormonal change and weight gain are both a very natural part of pregnancy. Unfortunately these changes create the risk of developing gestational diabetes because they often challenge the way the body produces and handles insulin. Insulin is necessary to carry the sugar in the blood to the cells in the body for energy. Pregnant women need more energy to support the life they are creating thus it is necessary for their body to produce more insulin, about three times as much as before they became pregnant. There are hormones made in the placenta, the organ that transfers nutrients from mom to baby, that interfere with the production of insulin. Every pregnant woman develops some level of insulin resistance because of this. Usually the pancreas can handle the additional production of insulin. When the body cannot produce or properly use the insulin the blood sugar does not get delivered to the cells and instead build up in the blood causing gestational diabetes.

Now that you know the what and the why of gestational diabetes you have the power to improve your pregnancy and make this time with child the miracle it was meant to be.

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