Gestational Diabetes

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Along with all the worries and complications a woman might face while pregnant, one of the more serious conditions is gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes occurs in 4% of all pregnancies (Seibel, 2009). Many women are not informed about the disease, some may not know that they need to be tested, and others may have heard about it, but want more information on what may cause it and/or how to prevent and treat it. Either way this disease needs to be taken seriously by every pregnant woman or woman planning to get pregnant to protect not only herself but the unborn child.

Gestational diabetes is a disorder characterized by impaired ability to metabolize carbohydrates, usually caused by a deficiency of insulin resistance, occurring in pregnancy (Seibel, 2009). After the baby is delivered the disorder disappears but in few cases it has returned as type 2 diabetes. There are many factors that increase the risk in women to acquire the disorder, being overweight prior to becoming pregnant, a family history of diabetes, having too much amniotic fluid, and having sugar in your urine are just some of them (Namak, 2010). During a normal pregnancy tissue resistance to insulin is present, and weight gain and presence of placental hormones can contribute to this insulin resistance ( Gutierrez, 2007). Pregnant women require two to three times more insulin than a woman who is not pregnant, and the insulin production and increased tissue resistance causes this glucose intolerance or increased blood sugar levels or gestational diabetes ( Gutierrez, 2007).

“Almost all women have some type of impaired glucose in tolerance resulting from hormonal changes they go through during pregnancy. This means that their blood sugar levels may be higher...

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...st twice the risk of developing diabetes compared to those who had breastfed (Doheny, 2010). Overall the study showed to be successful, but only for those women who breastfed all of their children for a month or longer. So with these studies it encourages women to take part in the well being of themselves and their unborn child by getting tested for gestational diabetes earlier than later.

Gestational diabetes may only be a disease that last throughout a pregnancy, but it is very harmful to not only the mother but also can be for the unborn baby. It is important that gestational diabetes is widely known and understood because the earlier in the pregnancy the patient knows the better. Gestational diabetes can be extremely harmful so it is nothing to take lightly; patients have to know that they must follow the instructions given to prevent the disease to worsen.

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