10 Facts About Gestational diabetes

Gestational diabetes is a condition in which a woman without diabetes develops high blood sugar levels during pregnancy.

Babies born to mothers with poorly treated gestational diabetes are at increased risk of being too large, having low blood sugar after birth, and jaundice.

Gestational diabetes can occur during pregnancy because of insulin resistance or reduced production of insulin.

Gestational diabetes is treated with a diabetic diet, exercise, medication, and possibly insulin injections.

Gestational diabetes is formally defined as "any degree of glucose intolerance with onset or first recognition during pregnancy".

Some pregnant women and careproviders choose to forgo routine screening due to the absence of risk factors, however this is not advised due to the large proportion of women who develop gestational diabetes despite having no risk factors present and the dangers to the mother and baby if gestational diabetes remains untreated.

Women with gestational diabetes who receive lifestyle interventions seem to have less postpartum depression, and were more likely to reach their weight loss targets after giving birth, than women who had no intervention.

Women diagnosed with gestational diabetes have an increased risk of developing diabetes mellitus in the future.

In populations with a low risk for type 2 Gestational diabetes, in lean subjects and in women with auto-antibodies, there is a higher rate of women developing type 1 Gestational diabetes.

Unlike pre-gestational diabetes, gestational diabetes has not been clearly shown to be an independent risk factor for birth defects.