Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that affects strictly pregnant women. Like other forms of diabetes, gestational diabetes occurs when too much blood sugar enters and lingers in the bloodstream. Too much sugar in the bloodstream can cause serious health problems, including but not limited to kidney failure, heart disease and blindness.
Typically, the body breaks down sugars and converts them into glucose for energy. It does this with help from a hormone called insulin, which the pancreas produces. When you have diabetes, however, your body may either struggle to produce insulin or to use it effectively, leading to high blood sugar levels.
Gestational diabetes can have serious implications for both mom and baby. For this reason, OB/GYNs and prenatal health teams take steps to identify diabetes early in pregnancies. The sooner a woman is diagnosed with gestational diabetes, the sooner she can take steps to manage it.
If you are pregnant, your doctor will likely test you for gestational diabetes at between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy. If you test positive for the condition, your doctor can prescribe medications and recommend lifestyle changes that will help you manage it. If your doctor does not catch gestational diabetes in time, however, or if you fail to manage the condition through recommended medications and lifestyle changes, your risk for pregnancy complications increases dramatically.
If not well controlled, gestational diabetes can cause pregnancy complications that affect both mom and baby. Potential risks associated with unmanaged gestational diabetes for baby are as follows.
Macrosomia is a condition in which the baby weighs more eight pounds, 13 ounces at birth. When a baby is this big, he or she is likely to hurt both his or her mother during labour and him or herself.
Shoulder dystocia is a birth injury that occurs when one of the baby’s shoulders gets stuck behind the mother’s sacrum (the bone behind the pelvis bone) or the pubic bone during birth. Shoulder dystocia can lead to a fractured collarbone, a fractured arm and/or nerve damage. Shoulder dystocia-caused nerve damage typically affects the brachial plexus nerves, which travel the length of the spinal cord between the neck and the arm. Babies whose nerves are damaged may experience numbness in the arm, shoulder, hand or all of the above.
Preterm birth is any birth that occurs before 37 weeks of pregnancy. Though most women who have gestational diabetes manage to make it to 39 to 40 weeks of pregnancy, your doctor may try to induce labour early if complications to your health arise. If you are unable to carry your baby to full term, he or she may experience health complications throughout his or her life, including but not limited to the following:
For these reasons, doctors try to keep babies in the womb for as long as possible up until the due date.
Stillbirth is a rare complication of gestational diabetes, but a complication nonetheless. Studies show that while the outcome of managed gestational diabetes is generally good, women have up to a 44% increased risk of experiencing a stillbirth when they go through pregnancy with unmanaged diabetes compared to those who manage the condition. Stillbirth is the worst-case outcome of gestational diabetes. It is, fortunately, mostly preventable.
Outside of complications that may occur during the pregnancy itself or labour, gestational diabetes can cause health complications for your child later in life. Some common complications children of gestational diabetic mothers eventually develop are as follows:
Gestational diabetes can cause health complications for the mother as well. If you have gestational diabetes, it is critical for your long-term health and well-being to manage it as best you can, otherwise you increase your risk of the following complications.
Postpartum haemorrhage is a serious but rare complication that is characterized by heavy bleeding after giving birth. It typically develops within one day of giving birth but can occur up to 12 weeks after having a baby. Though any woman can experience PPH, women whose babies experienced shoulder dystocia have a higher risk of haemorrhaging after labour than those who had uncomplicated deliveries.
Because PPH is a condition in which women lose a significant amount of blood, it can cause a severe drop in blood pressure. If not treated in time, a new mother is at risk of going into shock, which can lead to a quick and untimely death.
Preeclampsia, which refers to high blood pressure during pregnancy, is another complication of gestational diabetes. In pregnant women, high blood pressure is usually a sign that other organs, such as the liver and kidney, are not working properly. Preeclampsia can put significant pressure on the heart and is an urgent condition.
Also known as postpartum depression, perinatal depression is a type of depression that occurs during pregnancy or in the first year after giving birth. It can cause intense feelings of sadness, anger and disinterest and, in some cases, cause a mother to have little to no feelings toward her child. In more extreme cases, the mother may loathe the baby.
A Caesarean section, or C-section, is a method of delivering a baby in which a surgeon cuts a hole in the belly and uterus to remove the baby. If you experience severe complications during your pregnancy or labour, your medical team may recommend a C-section. Your doctor may also recommend a C-section if your baby has macrosomia — or, in other words, if it is very large.
Most women who develop gestational diabetes can generally have a vaginal birth without complications. However, they are more likely to need a C-section than women who never develop the condition.
If you develop gestational diabetes, you have a substantially higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life than if you had made it through pregnancy without developing the condition. In fact, 50% of women with gestational diabetes go on to develop type 2 diabetes. You can lower your risk by eating healthy, exercising regularly and maintaining an otherwise healthy lifestyle.
You can reduce the risk that either you or your baby develop complications of diabetes by making healthy lifestyle choices and following doctor’s orders for the duration of your pregnancy. Some steps your doctor will likely recommend to manage your condition and keep you and your baby healthy are as follows:
Gestational diabetes is a serious condition that can cause serious complications for both mom and baby. However, with the right care, knowledge and tools, you can effectively manage the condition and ensure you and your baby make it through your pregnancy, labour and delivery without issue.