Gestational diabetes is the type of diabetes that can happen during pregnancy. Treating gestational diabetes helps reduce the risk of complications during pregnancy and improve your baby’s health in the future.
What causes gestational diabetes?
Gestational diabetes is a condition affecting around 15% of pregnant women. It causes a woman’s blood glucose to be high. The placenta produces hormones to help the unborn baby develop and grow and these hormones stop insulin hormone working so well. Insulin is the hormone needed to keep blood glucose normal. If a woman can’t meet the demand for extra insulin her blood glucose will rise.
How can gestational diabetes be avoided?
The best way to reduce the risk of gestational diabetes is to be fit and healthy before becoming pregnant. Being overweight will increase your risk, as does having a baby after 30 years of age. Gestational diabetes can still occur in healthy people – risk factors you can’t change include your family history of type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes in a previous pregnancy and being certain ethnic backgrounds (diabetes is much more common in women of an Asian, indigenous, Islander, Mediterranean or Middle Eastern background).
Symptoms of gestational diabetes:
Gestational diabetes usually has no obvious symptoms. If symptoms do occur, they can include:
- Excessive urination
- Unusual thirst
- Extreme tiredness
- Frequent yeast infections
Unfortunately, these are often common symptoms of pregnancy, so generally, gestational diabetes is picked up when you have a routine blood glucose test between the 24th and 28th week of your pregnancy.