Can Gestational Diabetes Cause More Issues
The days, weeks, and months following gestational diabetes are when you are at risk for physical and emotional problems. However, it is also a time when you can begin to form healthy habits that will help you stay healthy in the future.
Keep in touch with your medical team and keep all of your appointments. One should make an effort to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. Eat healthy and exercise regularly. You took care of your gestational diabetes now its time to take care of your future diabetes.
People with larger bodies or who are obese are more likely to develop gestational diabetes. Therefore, they should be aware of the signs while pregnant. Doctors can control gestational diabetes with the right medication. If a person does not seek therapy or make the necessary modifications, significant complications, such as preeclampsia, large birth weight of babies, preterm delivery and still birth may develop.
Women conceiving through assisted conception have been found to have a higher incidence of gestational diabetes. The exact mechanism is unclear. However, it could be because of associated obesity and polycystic ovaries.
Does High Blood Sugar Affect Breast Milk Supply
Pregnant women who have diabetes are more likely to have a lower milk supply for breastfeeding, according to new research. The Centre for Breastfeeding Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre reports that maternal glucose intolerance could make breastfeeding harder for new mothers.
Diet And Exercise For Gestational Diabetes
Take these simple steps to stay healthy:
Eat a healthy, low-sugar diet. Talk to your doctor to be sure youâre getting the nutrition you need. Follow a meal plan made for someone with diabetes:
- Trade sugary snacks like cookies, candy, and ice cream for natural sugars like fruits, carrots, and raisins. Add vegetables and whole grains, and watch your portion sizes.
- Have three small meals along with two or three snacks about the same times every day.
- Get 40% of your daily calories from carbs and 20% from protein. Most of the carbs should be complex, high-fiber carbs, with fat being between 25% and 40%.
- Aim for 20-35 grams of fiber a day. Foods such as whole-grain breads, cereals, and pasta brown or wild rice oatmeal and vegetables and fruits will help get you there.
- Limit your total fat to less than 40% of your daily calories. Saturated fat should be less than 10% of all the calories you eat.
- Eat a variety of foods to make sure you get enough vitamins and minerals. You may need to take a supplement to cover your bases. Ask your doctor if they think you should take one.
Exercise throughout your pregnancy. You can exercise when you have gestational diabetes as long as your doctor says itâs OK. Being active is a good way to help manage your blood sugar. Staying fit during pregnancy is also good for your posture and can curb some common problems, like backaches and fatigue.
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How Does Gestational Diabetes Affect Any Future Pregnancies
If you have had gestational diabetes, you are more likely to have it again in future pregnancies. For that reason, a test for gestational diabetes will be performed early in any future pregnancy. If this test gives a negative result within the recommended range, then another pregnancy OGTT will be done again later in the pregnancy to make sure your blood glucose levels are still in the recommended range.
What Happens Straight After The Birth
After birth, you and your baby will be carefully looked after. Here’s a few things you can expect to happen:
- Your baby should stay with you unless the team has any concerns. If there are concerns, they may move your baby to a special unit called a neonatal unit.
- Your baby will need to be fed soon after birth within 30 minutes and then every two to three hours after that.
- Your babys blood sugar level will be checked regularly to help stop it from going too low.
- You and your baby will have to stay in hospital for at least 24 hours before you can go home. This is because your healthcare team will need to make sure that your babys sugar levels are ok and that they are feeding well.
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How We Can Help
If you have any questions about gestational diabetes, how to reverse the underlying insulin resistance, and how you can manage both with a low-fat, plant-based, whole-food diet, you can reach out to us.
We can help you every step along the way, and help you tailor your nutritional plan to something that tastes great, leaves you feeling good, and helps both you and your baby to a healthy and easy pregnancy.
about how we can help you have a healthy pregnancy, a healthy delivery, and how we can help you minimize the risk for developing type 2 diabetes after pregnancy.
Glucose Tolerance Test – Mayo Clinic. .
Glucose Tolerance Test:: American Pregnancy Association. .
Group, National Diabetes Data. Classification and Diagnosis of Diabetes Mellitus and Other Categories of Glucose Intolerance. Diabetes 28, no. 12 : 103957. .
International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups Consensus Panel, Boyd E. Metzger, Steven G. Gabbe, Bengt Persson, Thomas A. Buchanan, Patrick A. Catalano, Peter Damm, et al. International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups Recommendations on the Diagnosis and Classification of Hyperglycemia in Pregnancy. Diabetes Care 33, no. 3 : 67682. .
How Is It Diagnosed
While most women with gestational diabetes have no obvious symptoms, some experience extreme hunger, thirst, or fatigue. Since these symptoms are also common during typical pregnancies, Dr. Esakoff says it’s essential to get proper screening.
“We have patients who take care of themselves, are in excellent shape, watch their diet, and they still get it,” says Dr. Esakoff. So you should definitely get tested around 24-28 weeks.”
Tests include a 1-hour glucose tolerance test, and if it’s positive, a follow-up 3-hour test to confirm the diagnosis.
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Screening For Gestational Diabetes
During your first antenatal appointment at around week 8 to 12 of your pregnancy, your midwife or doctor will ask you some questions to determine whether you’re at an increased risk of gestational diabetes.
If you have 1 or more risk factors for gestational diabetes you should be offered a screening test.
The screening test is called an oral glucose tolerance test , which takes about 2 hours.
It involves having a blood test in the morning, when you have not had any food or drink for 8 to 10 hours . You’re then given a glucose drink.
After resting for 2 hours, another blood sample is taken to see how your body is dealing with the glucose.
The OGTT is done when you’re between 24 and 28 weeks pregnant. If you’ve had gestational diabetes before, you’ll be offered an OGTT earlier in your pregnancy, soon after your booking appointment, then another OGTT at 24 to 28 weeks if the first test is normal.
Find out more about an OGTT.
Does Gestational Diabetes Go Away
Most doctors arent comfortable using the word reverse when it comes to gestational diabetes because its considered a temporary form of diabetes that resolves after delivery.
However, if you develop gestational diabetes during pregnancy, scientific research indicates that you have a 35-60% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes within 10 to 20 years after pregnancy.
Multiple studies have found similar results, which indicate that its important to treat gestational diabetes as a potential warning sign and respond accordingly.
Fortunately, making smart changes to your diet can not only help reverse insulin resistance, but also help improve you and your babys overall health.
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What Happens During Labour And Birth
Youll be advised to give birth in a hospital. Thats because its easier to solve any problems that may happen.
You should also be advised to have your labour induced, or a caesarean section if this is the best option for you, before 41 weeks of pregnancy if you have not had your baby by this time. You may be advised to have your baby earlier than this if there are complications, such as high blood pressure or a big baby.During labour and birth, your blood sugar levels will be monitored carefully. If your levels arent between 4-7mmol/l, you may be given a drip.
How Much Carbohydrate Should I Eat To Control Blood Sugar
This is going to be very individual. Things like height and weight, carbohydrate tolerance, activity level, whether you are carrying multiples and countless other factors can affect how much carbohydrate you will want to intake.
As a general rule, most pregnant women with gestational diabetes can tolerate somewhere between 100-200 grams of carbohydrates daily. Some organizations will suggest 175 grams of carbohydrate as a minimum for pregnant women. This is not something I agree with.
Often times women will continue to experience elevated blood sugars eating 175 grams of carbohydrate or higher. In this case, I would recommend lowering carbohydrate by 15 grams per day until you can achieve desired blood sugar goals.
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Can Gestational Diabetes Cause Problems During Pregnancy
Yes. If not treated, GDM can cause pregnancy complications, including:
Gestational diabetes also can cause health complications for your baby after birth, including:
- Breathing problems, including respiratory distress syndrome . This is a breathing problem caused when babies dont have enough surfactant in their lungs. Surfactant is a protein that keeps the small air sacs in the lungs from collapsing.
- Jaundice. This is a medical condition in which a babys eyes and skin look yellow. A baby has jaundice when his liver isn’t fully developed or isnt working well.
- Low blood sugar
- Obesity later in life
How Does Gestational Diabetes Affect The Baby
When you are diagnosed with gestational diabetes, the primary concern is to ensure a healthy pregnancy for you and your baby, which means managing your blood glucose with precision.
Glucose in maternal blood passes through the placenta and into the babys bloodstream. Maternal insulin, however, doesn’t cross the placenta.
This happens because glucose is a small molecule that is small enough to pass through the placenta, but maternal insulin is a much larger molecule that cannot pass through.
Your baby will begin producing its own insulin at 12 weeks gestation.
When the fetus is exposed to excess glucose from the mothers blood, the baby secretes its own excess insulin in utero, greatly increasing the risk for complications for both mom and baby.
What this means is that your babys glucose level will likely remain stable throughout pregnancy even though your blood glucose may be elevated.
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Tips For Getting Breastfeeding Established
At around 37 weeks of your pregnancy you can express and store some colostrum . This can be given to your baby if they cannot breastfeed after birth or if their blood glucose level is low and need some extra milk.
For advice and support, ask your hospitals clinical midwife specialist in lactation, diabetes midwife specialist and parentcraft team or your public health nurse.
Unless your baby needs special care in the neonatal intensive care unit , make sure your baby has skin-to-skin contact with you or your birth partner as soon as possible after birth.
While doing skin-to-skin contact, start breastfeeding within 1 hour after birth. Your colostrum is the best food for your baby and will help their blood glucose to stay at a safe level. You can ask your midwife or nurse to help you to get your baby latched on or positioned correctly to your breast.
Your midwife or nurse will check the babys blood glucose level according to the hospital policy.
Continue to breastfeed frequently at least every 2 to 3 hours, maybe 8 to 12 times in 24 hours. It will take around 2 to 3 days for your milk to come in. In the meantime your baby is getting the vital colostrum.
Sample Gestational Diabetes Meal Plan
You can find recommended meal plans, plant-based recipes to blow you away, and nutritional guidelines to reverse insulin resistance all here at Mastering Diabetes.org.
As we mentioned above, the method is actually very simple: low-fat, plant-based, whole-foods.
However, weve also included a guide with some pro-tips on what you can eat throughout each trimester below.
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What Are The Complications Of Gestational Diabetes
If your blood sugar levels remain high during your pregnancy, this may lead to pregnancy problems such as a large baby, miscarriage or stillbirth. Having a large baby can lead to complications and injury during the birth, and increase the chances of having intervention in labour such as a caesarean birth. But the baby will not be born with diabetes.
If you have gestational diabetes, you are at higher risk of developing high blood pressure while you are pregnant and a 50% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the future. Your baby is also at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes in later life.
To reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes:
- keep to a healthy weight
- eat a healthy diet
- be physically active
- check your blood glucose levels
You can also call Pregnancy, Birth and Baby on 1800 882 436 to speak to a maternal child health nurse for advice and support.
Does Gestational Diabetes Go Away After Pregnancy
Pregnancy is a miracle thing in womans life. Changes in hormones to respond the pregnancy are expected, but in a few cases this may also factor into insulin resistance, causing a condition called gestational diabetes mellitus or GDM. Does the condition go away after giving birth? Yes, it usually goes away afterwards, but when?
You are not alone. GDM affects about 3 to 5 percent of all pregnancies.
The most important thing, GDM is a manageable condition and would not hurt your pregnancy and your baby as long as you can control your blood sugar as well .
There are now a lot of doctors and health professionals that have clearly understood about the condition. So, as long as you stick to the prescribed treatment plan, there should be nothing to worry!
The underlying reason of GDM
Placenta is probably the main culprit, though the exactly underlying cause of the condition is not fully understood yet. Placenta stimulates the body to produce and increase the amounts of certain hormones during pregnancy.
These changes are a normal part of your pregnancy. It is needed to prepare the growth of your baby. But the bad news, it may also affect the way of insulin to work .
Once your insulin doesnt work effectively, its harder to regulate and maintain your blood sugar. The absorption of glucose in the blood plasma cannot run optimally with poor performance of insulin or poor volume of insulin released in the bloodstream .
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Delivery When You Have Gestational Diabetes
When planning for the baby’s arrival, the doctor will access the size of the baby to determine if you can deliver vaginally. If you have been able to keep your blood glucose well-controlled, your baby’s weight is within an appropriate range, you don’t have any other pregnancy concerns such as high blood pressure, and you are not on medication, than your labor should proceed just as it would if you didn’t have gestational diabetes. Of course, your delivery team will monitor your blood sugar throughout.
If your baby is considered too large for you to deliver vaginally then you will likely be induced at week 38 or 39. You and your doctor may also decide that a cesarean section may be a better route for delivering the baby. Should blood sugar levels get too high during labor, the baby may release more insulin in response. That increases the risk of the baby developing low blood glucose after birth so a C-section may be considered.
Monitoring Blood Glucose Levels
Monitoring your blood glucose levels is essential. It gives you a guide as to whether the changes you have made to your lifestyle are effective or whether further treatment is required.
A diabetes nurse educator can teach you how and when to measure your blood glucose levels. They will discuss the recommended blood glucose levels to aim for.
Your doctor or diabetes educator can help you register with the National Diabetes Services Scheme for discounted blood glucose strips. Regular contact with your diabetes educator or doctor is recommended.
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Are You At Risk For Gestational Diabetes
You may be more likely than other women to develop gestational diabetes if:
- Youre older than 25.
- Youre overweight or obese and not physically active.
- You had gestational diabetes or a baby with macrosomia in a past pregnancy.
- You have high blood pressure or youve had heart disease.
- You have polycystic ovarian syndrome . This is a hormone imbalance that can affect a womens reproductive and overall health.
- You have prediabetes. This means your blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be diabetes.
- You have a parent, brother or sister who has diabetes.
Even women without any of these risk factors can develop gestational diabetes. This is why your health care provider tests you for GDM during pregnancy.
How Gestational Diabetes Can Affect Your Pregnancy
Most women with gestational diabetes have otherwise normal pregnancies with healthy babies.
However, gestational diabetes can cause problems such as:
- your baby growing larger than usual this may lead to difficulties during the delivery and increases the likelihood of needing induced labour or a caesarean section
- polyhydramnios too much amniotic fluid in the womb, which can cause premature labour or problems at delivery
- premature birth giving birth before the 37th week of pregnancy
- pre-eclampsia a condition that causes high blood pressure during pregnancy and can lead to pregnancy complications if not treated
- your baby developing low blood sugar or yellowing of the skin and eyes after he or she is born, which may require treatment in hospital
- the loss of your baby though this is rare
Having gestational diabetes also means you’re at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the future.
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