What Is Gestational Diabetes?

Gestational diabetes is a kind of diabetes which affects mainly the pregnant woman. How does gestational diabetes develop? When a woman is pregnant, the hormones which are responsible for the development of placenta block the insulin in the mother’s body. It reduces the receptivity of insulin by the cells and this situation is known as the insulin resistance.

It is believed that 4% of pregnant women have the risk of getting affected by gestational diabetes. It has found that around 150,000 cases of gestational diabetes occur every year in U.S.

When a woman is pregnant she requires thrice the amount of insulin to make the glucose to enter into the cells. The shortage of insulin due to insulin resistance transforms to gestational diabetes. When the glucose mounts in the blood, it is called as hyperglycemia.
Too much of glucose may affect the health of the baby when the woman is pregnant.

Gestational diabetes is more frequent in women with late pregnancy. As the insulin fails to cross the placenta, the excess blood glucose passes to the baby. It forces the baby’s pancreas to make extra insulin to meet the excess blood glucose.

As the baby receives more energy than the required level, the excess will be stored in the form of fat. This makes your baby fat at birth and may even lead to hypoglycemia or respiratory problems.

Is treatment for gestational diabetes necessary?

Much care and attention is needed for gestational diabetes as it may severely harm you and your child. The ultimate aim of the treatment is to keep the blood glucose level under control. The treatment includes routine exercise and a planned diet. You have to take insulin injections if required. Frequent check up of blood glucose level helps you to keep the blood sugar under control. If gestational diabetes is treated properly you can even avoid even the cesarean section.

Normally gestational diabetes does not show off after pregnancy. Since you have already had gestational diabetes, your chances for appearing of this disease is more in the next pregnancy.

Sometimes it may become hard to discover whether the woman has gestational diabetes or any of other two type of diabetes. If the pregnancy exposes type1 or type2 diabetes, then that women should continue her diabetes treatment even after the pregnancy.

Also the possibilities of developing type2 diabetes in future are more in the gestational diabetic patients. It is mainly because both gestational and type2 diabetes are insulin resistant in nature. However a change in your normal life style can prevent the onset of diabetes after the gestational diabetes. If you are weighing more, then losing a few pounds can be effective in preventing the diabetes. Also choosing a healthy diet and undergoing routine exercise can give you better results.