Gestational Diabetes

What is gestational diabetes?

Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that starts during pregnancy. If you have diabetes, your body isn’t able to use the sugar (glucose) in your blood as well as it should, so the level of sugar in your blood becomes higher than normal.

Gestational diabetes affects about 4% of all pregnant women. It usually begins in the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy (between the 24th and 28th weeks). Most often, gestational diabetes goes away after the baby is born.

Gestational Diabetes

How can gestational diabetes affect me and my baby?

High sugar levels in your blood can be unhealthy for both you and your baby. If the diabetes isn’t treated, your baby may be more likely to have problems at birth. For example, your baby may have a low blood sugar level or jaundice, or your baby may weigh much more than is normal. Gestational diabetes can also affect your health. For instance, if your baby is very large, you may have a more difficult delivery or need a cesarean section.

Source: American Academy of Family Physicians

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University Update - Diabetes - Gestational Diabetes | 08 August 2007, 21:11
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Pregestational Diabetic Women More Likely to Have Birth Defects at MyDocHub Blog - Online Health Community | 30 July 2008, 12:40
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gestational diabetes | 12 March 2009, 21:17
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Dentist Vallejo | 23 February 2010, 01:46
Glucose tolerance tests may lead to one of the following diagnoses:

* Normal response: A person is said to have a normal response when the 2-hour glucose level is less than 140 mg/dl, and all values between 0 and 2 hours are less than 200 mg/dl.

* Impaired glucose tolerance: A person is said to have impaired glucose tolerance when the fasting plasma glucose is less than 126 mg/dl and the 2-hour glucose level is between 140 and 199 mg/dl.

* Diabetes: A person has diabetes when two diagnostic tests done on different days show that the blood glucose level is high.

* Gestational diabetes: A woman has gestational diabetes when she has any two of the following: a 100g OGTT, a fasting plasma glucose of more than 95 mg/dl, a 1-hour glucose level of more than 180 mg/dl, a 2-hour glucose level of more than 155 mg/dl, or a 3-hour glucose level of more than 140 mg/dl.