4/06/2005

Pregnancy- Diabetes


While you are pregnant, you need to make more insulin to breakdown the sugar (glucose) in your blood and convert it to energy. When your pancreas cannot create sufficient amounts of insulin to keep up with the level of glucose in your blood you get Gestational Diabetes. This condition occurs in about four percent of pregnancies. The warning signs of gestational diabetes are similar to pregnancy symptoms, therefore, your doctor will need to give you a glucose test to find out whether or not you have gestational diabetes. This test is typically administered sometime between your 24-28th week.

If you have gestational diabetes, your doctor might have you counsel with a nutritionist who will help you control your blood sugar. You should also get plenty of exercise and test your blood sugar level each day. If you're not able to control your diabetes with diet and exercise, you'll need to use insulin injections.

Gestational Diabetes will produce some dangers for you and your baby. Your diabetes will typically go away a few weeks after you have the baby. Your doctor will monitor your blood sugar levels after giving birth to ensure that your levels are returning to normal. From that point on you will have higher chances of getting diabetes in subsequent pregnancies as well as Type Two diabetes later on in life.

Glucose crosses the placenta and goes into your babys blood stream. If you have gestational diabetes, your baby's blood sugar level will also rise. His or her pancreas will create more insulin to assist in breaking down the extra sugar. Because the breakdown of glucose provides the body with energy, the higher level of glucose caused by diabetes will cause your baby to keep the extra energy as fat. This could cause you to have a higher than normal birth weight baby which may require you to have a cesarean section.

After birth, your baby may still be producing the excess insulin required to breakdown the extra glucose collected from you. Because your child isn't getting the extra glucose from you, he/she may have low blood sugar. A blood sample will be taken from your babys heel to check the blood sugar level. If your child's blood sugar level is low, you'll want to breast feed as quickly as possible or give give the baby formula. Babies whose moms had gestational diabetes have increased risks of being obese or of developing diabetes in childhood or as an adult.

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