Diabetes and Pregnancy

Pregnancy brings a sea change in the metabolism in pregnant women. Your bodyhas to produce extra insulin to meet the requirements of your body during pregnancy, especially from 4^th month onwards. Hormonal changes during pregnancy may interfere with the insulin function and if your body can't cope with the situation, you may develop gestational diabetes. Women with family history of diabetes mellitus, older mothers and obese women are at the risk of developing gestation diabetes mellitus (GDM). The diabetes mellitus in pregnancy could be classified as pre-gestational or gestation diabetes mellitus. One out of fourteen cases of pregnancy may develop GDM in second or third trimester of pregnancy due to effect of placental hormones. Ideally, all pregnant women should be tested to rule out gestation diabetes. The routine examination of urine for sugar, on every visit to the gynaecologist could give an indication about onset of gestation diabetes and need for further investigations and medication. If elevated level of blood sugar is observed on random blood sugar (RBS)investigation, one should go for glucose tolerance test (GTT). Diabetic mothers need extra care to prevent spontaneous abortion and malformations in infants. Babies born to diabetic women, who were diabetic before they became pregnant, would have a greater risk of health problems, if diabetes was poorly controlled. Babies grow bigger in diabetic expectants due to extra sugar crossing the placenta and may make labour and delivery more difficult. Periodic screening, dietary control and proper medication are must to avoid GDM associated complications in expectant mothers and babies born.