Pregnancy Diabetes

What is Gestational Diabetes?
Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that affects women during pregnancy, usually during the second or third trimester. it happens when you have too much sugar (glucose) in your blood during pregnancy. Gestational diabetes affects around one in twenty pregnant women.
it is not unusual to feel concerned, If you are diagnosed with gestational diabetes, or you have been told you are at risk of gestational diabetes. The good news is that gestational diabetes often goes away after your baby is born. Gestational diabetes is often diagnosed through a blood test at 24–28 weeks into pregnancy.

Who is at Risk of Developing Gestational Diabetes?
• Women who are overweight
• Women who have had gestational diabetes before
• Women who have had a very large baby in a previous pregnancy
• Women who have a family history of diabetes
• Ethnic women who are from a Black, Middle Eastern or South Asian background

Will Gestational Diabetes Affect my unborn baby?

If you are unaware that you have gestational diabetes, your baby is likely to be affected. Your baby is usually at the risk of growing larger than normal especially if you have lots of sugar in your body.

Big babies, make labor very difficult and sometimes lead to unforeseen complications. Uncontrolled diabetes, also leads to lots of water forming around the baby’s body.

You must always make sure that you take gestational diabetes test, as early detection of gestational diabetes can avert all complications such as miscarriage, premature birth, and stillbirth.

How Do l know if I have Gestational Diabetes?

Well, you have to take gestational diabetes test to determine whether you have gestational diabetes or not. Women with gestational diabetes often do not have any symptoms at all, and this is why they are monitored for it by routine checks in pregnancy. This routine test will determine if:

• Your body mass index equals to or is greater than 30.
• You give birth to a baby which weighs above 4.5kg.
• You have suffered from gestational diabetes before.
• You are prone to developing gestational diabetes

Can I Prevent Gestational Diabetes?

Medical research has it that there are no possible ways of preventing gestational diabetes but there are safety measures, which lowers the risk of developing gestational diabetes. These safety measures include:
• Dieting: This is the process by which meals are being planned in order to meet with the various requirements of a basic balanced meal. Plan your meals around foods low in carbohydrates who are overweight

• Exercise: Exercise aids in controlling the body’s sugar level. All pregnant women should do some sort of exercise irrespective of their health conditions as it aids in eliminating the possibility of gestational diabetes. There are lots of exercises one can undergo such as walking, yoga, swimming, running, and jugging etc.

• Keeping an eye on your weight gain and try as much as you can to put it under control.

Gestational Diabetes Management
With appropriate management of gestational diabetes, you can increase your chances of having a healthy pregnancy and delivering a healthy baby.
If gestational diabetes is not managed appropriately, it can lead to possible complications such as miscarriage, premature birth, and stillbirth.

Gestational Diabetes Symptoms

• Feeling tired
• Urinating a lot
• Having a dry mouth
• Always feeling thirsty
• Having blurred vision
• Getting reoccurring infections