Diabetes During Pregnancy

Questions And Answers About Diabetes During Pregnancy

The best way to understand diabetes during pregnancy is to first understand what non-pregnancy diabetes is.

What Is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a chronic disease characterized by unusually high blood sugar, or glucose, levels and by erratic metabolic function. High blood sugar levels are caused either by low levels of the hormone insulin or by resistance to the effects of insulin, combined with insufficient levels of secreted insulin. Symptoms of diabetes sufferers include excessive urination, excessive thirst, increased fluid intake, and blurred vision.

Why Does Diabetes Occur During Pregnancy?

Every pregnant woman knows that hormones go crazy during pregnancy. The placenta, which nourishes the developing fetus in the womb, creates hormones that help the baby grow and develop.

Insulin is also a hormone, and the hormones created by the placenta can sometimes interfere with the pregnant woman's ability to use insulin. As the pregnancy progresses and the placenta increases its hormonal production, the pregnant woman's pancreas loses its ability to create insulin. As a result, glucose builds up in the bloodstream, and diabetes during pregnancy results.

Risk Factors

Pregnant women can assess risk factors to see if they are likely to get diabetes during pregnancy. Some of the risk factors are having a family history of diabetes, being overweight, having had a previous stillborn birth, having had a previous baby with a birth weight of greater than nine pounds, and being over 25 at the time of the birth. The African-American, Hispanic, and Native American races are all more likely to develop diabetes during pregnancy.

Testing For Diabetes during pregnancy

A doctor should test a pregnant woman for diabetes during pregnancy as part of the normal prenatal care. Two tests are used to detect diabetes during pregnancy: a blood glucose test and a glucose tolerance test. A blood glucose test involves the patient swallowing a glucose solution and waiting one hour for a blood test to be taken. If the blood glucose level is above a certain level, the doctor will recommend the second test, the glucose tolerance test.

During the glucose tolerance test, the patient follows a special diet for three days, followed by eight hours of fasting. A blood sample is taken, and then a glucose drink is consumed. Blood samples are taken hourly for three hours straight. If the blood glucose reading is abnormal, diabetes during pregnancy is diagnosed.

Testing for diabetes during pregnancy is an important part of every woman's prenatal care. Any pregnant woman who is concerned that she may develop diabetes during pregnancy should consult her physician.