Gestational Diabetes - Causes & Effects
Gestational diabetes is diabetes, which is usually encountered during pregnancy, and just like other types of diabetes it affects the sugar level in your body and its use. It causes increase in blood
sugar level, which has an adverse effect on the health of your baby more than it has on yours. Gestational diabetes is transitory and your blood sugar level will shortly become normal after delivery.
Causes
After you have eaten, glucose enters your blood, and the pancreas which makes insulin sends the glucose to the cells of your body to be used as energy.
The placenta that envelops the baby during pregnancy yields a number of hormones, which at times hinders the functioning of insulin in cells, as a result increasing the level of sugar in blood. The moderate rise in blood sugar during pregnancy is nothing to be worried about.
With the growth of the baby, the placenta secretes more hormones hampering the performance of insulin, and results in the increase of blood sugar level to an extent that it might affect the baby’s growth. Gestational diabetes is more likely to transpire during the last half of pregnancy.
Effects
Usually women with gestational diabetes give birth to perfectly healthy babies but if it is not treated carefully, then it can lead to unrestrained blood sugar level causing cause you and your baby some trouble..
Mothers suffering from gestational diabetes might find their babies’ at an increased risk of excess growth. The excess glucose passing through the placenta enters the pancreas of the infant and triggers it to produce more insulin. This leads to the baby becoming oversized, a medical condition called macrosomia. Outsized babies are hard to deliver and might suffer from birth injuries or might need a C-section delivery.
The babies of the women, who have suffered from gestational diabetes, are quite likely to suffer from hypoglycemia (low blood sugar level) after birth, for the insulin secretion in their own body is high. If the medical condition persists, it might lead to the baby getting fits. A glucose solution injected can help the infant’s sugar level become normal.
Babies born to mothers, who have had gestational diabetes, have a greater chance of developing obesity and Type 2 diabetes afterwards. Such kids are challenged in terms of developing motor skills like, walking, jumping and other similar actions, which needs sense of balance and synchronization.
Besides, the complications that the mothers might suffer involve preeclampsia, which is distinguished by high blood pressure and increased amount of protein in the urine after the 20th week of pregnancy. This can cause fatal problems to the baby and the mother, if not treated properly. The possibility of women with gestational diabetes getting urinary tract infections is higher as compared to the pregnant women with no such problem. The reason behind it is the extra glucose in the urine.
Briefly, gestational diabetes must not be ignored if you want to ensure your and your newborn’s health. |
