Archive for the 'Diabetes and Pregnancy' Category

Women diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) who gain more than the Institute of Medicine-recommended amount of weight are at increased risk for undesirable outcomes, including preterm delivery and cesarean delivery, research shows.

These women are also more likely to require medical therapy to control their diabetes.

A “paucity” of information exists about the association between pregnancy weight gain and outcome in women with GDM, diabetes that develops during pregnancy and resolves after delivery, the study team notes in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

To investigate, Dr. Yvonne W. Cheng, from the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues performed a study in which they reviewed the medical records of 31,074 women with GDM and single pregnancies.

The women were enrolled in the Sweet Success California Diabetes and Pregnancy Program, which provides comprehensive educational, nutritional, psychosocial, and medical services offered by a multidisciplinary team.

One third of the women had weight gain below the IOM guidelines, based on their prepregnancy weight; one third gained weight within the guidelines, and the remaining third gained weight above the guidelines.

According to Cheng and colleagues, the women who exceeded the recommended weight gain, were more likely to have a primary cesarean delivery compared with the women in the other two groups.

Continuous glucose monitoring as part of antenatal care for women with diabetes improves maternal blood glucose control and lowers birth weight and risk of macrosomia* (excessive birth weight in babies), according to a study.

During pregnancy it is important that women with diabetes keep their blood glucose under control.

If not, there may be an increase in the amount of glucose reaching the baby, which makes the baby grow faster than normal, and may cause difficulties at birth as well as an increased longer term risk of insulin resistance, obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Evidence suggests that measuring glucose more often improves outcomes, but the optimum frequency of blood glucose testing is not known.

Dr Helen Murphy and colleagues examined whether continuous glucose monitoring during pregnancy can improve maternal glucose control and reduce birth weight and risk of macrosomia in babies of mothers with diabetes.

They recruited 71 pregnant women with type 1 and type 2 diabetes from antenatal clinics in the UK.

The women were randomly assigned to standard antenatal care (intermittent self monitoring of glucose levels using the finger prick technique) or intermittent monitoring plus continuous glucose monitoring (using glucose values from subcutaneous tissues measured electronically every 10 seconds, giving up to 288 measurements a day).

Pregnancy is the period during which your body undergoes various changes, because it is the time for your baby nourishment.

You need more rest, energy and nutrients for the baby’s growth during your pregnancy.

Effects of type 1 or type 2 diabetes on you:

• You need to be physically active. If you are a pregnant with diabetes, then there are greater chances in your body’s blood sugar to increase more often and more quickly.
• If you cannot control your blood sugar levels, then you will get some of the most common issues of diabetes or those issues become worse if you already have.
• Uncontrollable blood sugar levels can lead to miscarriage. Sometimes, this can also cause a great rise in blood pressure during your pregnancy.
• High blood pressure during pregnancy can cause your baby to born sooner or causes strokes or seizures at the time of labor and delivery.
• Uncontrollable blood sugar leads to deposit large amounts of amniotic fluid around the baby, thus leading to preterm labor.
• The other problem common to women with uncontrollable diabetes lead to too much growth of their baby. Along with other complications during the last months of pregnancy, this extra baby growth causes some additional complications for you and your baby.

Gestational diabetes develops during pregnancy when the blood sugar (glucose) levels in the body are too high.

The blood sugar levels can be controlled through gestational diabetes diet.

In general, diabetes develops when the body is unable to produce adequate insulin, a hormone that allows the cells to transform the blood sugar into purposeful fuel.

However, during pregnancy, if the sugar in your blood is more, then the cells will not get required amount of useful fluid. Thus, gestational diabetes may develop.

As gestational diabetes is very harmful for you and your baby, it is most important to control the condition [Gestational diabetes and birth defects]. An easy method to uphold the blood sugar levels in the body under control is to maintain a specific diet called gestational diabetes diet.

To plan your gestational diabetes diet, better consult a dietitian who can suggest you a proper diet based on your health condition, height, weight, age, the growing baby needs, as well as your glucose level intolerance.

A dietitian will suggest a gestational diabetes diet by identifying the amount of calories your body needs each day. Also, the dietician suggests the frequency, portions of your meals and the way to balance your diet with right quantity of calories and nutrients (carbohydrate, protein and fat).

Diabetes is a medical condition in which your blood sugar runs very high.

Diabetes in pregnant woman is called gestational diabetes.

In the United States, out of 100 pregnant women at least three to seven will be affected by gestational diabetes.

When a woman is exposed first time to the diabetes during pregnancy, it is gestational diabetes. Mostly gestational diabetes occurs in the second half of pregnancy and it goes away after your delivery. But there is a risk of having diabetes in the future.

You are likely to have a healthy baby if you Have diabetes before pregnancy, but if you have diabetes during pregnancy, you are at risk for having a birth defect baby, such as heart defects, etc. You are also at increased risk of having miscarriages, still birth, etc.

No one knows exactly the cause for gestational diabetes. However, it is believed that pregnancy hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) that is produced during pregnancy may obstruct the action of insulin. Thus, you cannot produce enough insulin.

On the other hand, gestational diabetes can affect the baby during pregnancy. Gestational diabetes in high levels can result in large baby, which can harm you and your baby during delivery and your delivery becomes hard and difficult.