Pregnancy

Gestational Diabetes During Pregnancy

Gestational Diabetes

      Gestational Diabetes During Pregnancy

Did your doctor diagnose gestational diabetes (GD or GDM), a diabetes form that only occurs during pregnancy? Although at first it may feel overwhelming, it turns out that this complication of pregnancy is much more common than you might think. In reality, between 6 and 9 percent of pregnant females develop GD. Know that it can be managed with careful monitoring and treatment, and you can be pregnant safely and healthily.

 

What Is Gestational Diabetes?

As the name suggests, this is the form of diabetes that happens during pregnancy in women at the time of gestation. Pregnancy causes some women to increase blood sugar concentrations, leading to gestational diabetes During pregnancy, insulin concentrations may fall in some women causing increased blood sugar concentrations. The concentrations of blood sugar in the body are usually held under control by the natural concentrations of insulin in the body.

Gestational diabetes may happen in women who have never had diabetes usually, and after delivery, it may be resolved. Women are more likely to develop gestational diabetes in their second and third trimesters

 

Causes Of Gestational Diabetes

Insulin is a pancreatic hormone that controls the body’s fat and carbohydrate metabolism and helps the body transform sugar into electricity. Gestational diabetes occurs when placenta block insulin hormones prevent the body from efficiently controlling enhanced pregnancy blood sugar. This triggers hyperglycemia (or elevated blood sugar concentrations) that can harm your body’s nerves, blood vessels, and organs.

 

Are You At Risk For Gestational Diabetes Development?

One in seven females in India is at danger during pregnancy to develop diabetes. But there are some women at danger than others. Here are some variables that make gestational diabetes riskier:

  • High BMI: Before pregnancy, those who were overweight are more at danger. Women gain additional weight during pregnancy, and being overweight only makes regulating blood sugar levels difficult for the body.
  • Rapid weight gain During pregnancy: while the precise connection between weight gain and gestational diabetes is not evident, specialists believe it is caused by an rise in insulin resistance by influencing the pancreatic beta cells responsible for the manufacturing of insulin. Beta cells ‘ ability to secrete insulin decreases, resulting in gestational diabetes.
  • Family Medical History: A family history of type II diabetes, particularly if it had a sibling or mother, makes the mom a promising candidate in her pregnancy to acquire gestational diabetes.
  • Previous Pregnancy History: If you have had diabetes in your previous pregnancies, physicians will hold you under rigorous vigilance and track your blood sugar concentrations frequently as it is quite probable to resurface.
  • Age: The risk of gestational diabetes is greater for people who are 25 years old or older. In fact, the probability of gestational diabetes being susceptible are greater the age.
  • Other Medical Conditions: Women with PCOS or a history of PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) are prone to gestational diabetes because one of the symptoms of this disease involves enhanced probability of resistance to insulin.

 

Usually when does gestational diabetes start?

It generally begins between week 24 and week 28 of pregnancy.

 

Symptoms

Most females with it have no symptoms, although some may experience:

  • The thirst is unusual.
  • Frequent urination in large quantities (distinguished from early pregnancy’s also frequent but usually light urination).
  • Fatigue (which can be difficult to distinguish from normal fatigue during pregnancy).
  • Sugar in the urine (detected during a visit by a routine practitioner).

 

 Tests and Diagnosis

In the second half of pregnancy, it usually occurs. Your doctor will check that between weeks 24 and 28 of your pregnancy you have it. If you are at high risk, you might get tested earlier.

You will quickly drink a sugar drink to test for it. This will increase the level of sugar in your blood. An hour later you’re going to take a blood test to see how all that sugar was handled by your body. If the results show that your blood sugar is higher than[ mg / dL] or higher than a certain cutoff, you will need more tests. This implies testing your blood sugar while fasting and testing for longer glucose over a 3-hour period.

You may need a follow-up test later in your pregnancy to ensure that you do not have it yet if your findings are normal but have a high risk of it.

 

Treatment

Your doctor will ask you to treat your gestational diabetes:

  • Check your levels of blood sugar four times or more a day.
  • Do urinary tests for ketones which do not regulate your diabetes
  • Eat a healthy diet that is consistent with the recommendations of your doctor
  • Make exercise a habit

Your doctor will monitor your weight gain and let you know if you need to take your it with insulin or any other medicine.

Complications

For the baby

  • High birth weight
  • Early birth
  • Syndrome of respiratory distress
  • Low blood sugar
  • Late in life, type 2 diabetes

For the mother

Test your diabetes for 6 to 12 weeks after your birth and every 1 to 3 years after your birth, to avoid future diabetes or gestational diabetes.

Maintaining a good weight and continuing good diet and exercise practices after delivery is also essential. This helps to decrease the danger of subsequent phases of life and during the next pregnancy of developing diabetes. Do not skip the follow-up sessions after delivery for yourself and for the baby. Continue to breastfeed while also making sure you eat a diet rich in nutrients. This will assist attain optimal weight and guarantee the mom and baby’s best health.

Also Read: 18 Most Embarrassing Pregnancy Problems

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