4 Steps To Manage Your Diabetes
Gestational diabetes is a unique form of diabetes that occurs during pregnancy. When someone is pregnant, their body goes through hormonal and physical changes. This can sometimes lead to elevated blood sugar, which results in gestational diabetes. It’s important to note that anyone who’s pregnant can get gestational diabetes, not just those who already have Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes.
Gestational diabetes typically happens because extra hormones released during pregnancy interfere with insulin, which is supposed to regulate your blood sugar. This can present a danger to both you and your unborn child, so it is important to seek immediate diagnosis and treatment, which will include one or more of the following methods.
Gestational diabetes is the result of having elevated blood sugar during pregnancy. While the root cause of gestational diabetes is that your hormones are keeping insulin from doing its job, it’s also partially because you have too much sugar in your diet.
Therefore, the first thing your doctor will recommend is that you make changes to your diet. These changes will include eating less junk food and consuming fewer sugary drinks and opting for a well-balanced diet. It’s important to consult a nutritionist or dietician if you have gestational diabetes.
In addition to dietary changes, you will also need to make adjustments to your lifestyle if you have gestational diabetes. People who are obese or inactive are more likely to develop gestational diabetes, so it’s important to stay active during pregnancy.
In most cases, this will include incorporating regular activity and exercise into your daily life. However, because doing the wrong exercises could present a health risk during pregnancy, you should consult a doctor or personal trainer who is experienced in working with pregnant women.
A key aspect of managing and treating gestational diabetes during pregnancy is self-monitoring. To do this, your doctor will teach you how to use a glucose meter to measure your blood sugar after every meal. That way, if your blood sugar gets too high, you will know right away and can contact your doctor for advice. You will also require more checkups with your doctor if you have gestational diabetes.
In most cases, diet and exercise are enough to keep your gestational diabetes in check if you catch it early enough. However, if your gestational diabetes is out of control, for whatever reason, you will require insulin injections.
Your diabetes is happening because you either don’t have enough insulin in your system or because your hormones are keeping it from doing its job. Either way, regular insulin injections can help keep your blood sugar under control and you and your baby safe.
While treatment can help you manage gestational diabetes, there’s currently no cure for it. Once you have it, you’re stuck with it until after your baby is born. However, by using the treatments above, you can monitor and control gestational diabetes and keep it from hurting you or your baby.
Managing your gestational diabetes is also important to reduce the potential of birthing complications or defects. Additionally, while most cases of gestational diabetes automatically go away after birth, this isn’t always the case. Gestational diabetes can linger and turn into Type 2 diabetes, which is a chronic condition that requires lifelong treatment. Therefore, it is important to do everything you can to prevent, monitor, and control gestational diabetes.