Diabetes During Pregnancy
What is diabetes?
Diabetes may be a condition during which the body can’t make enough insulin, or can’t use insulin normally. Insulin may be a hormone. It helps sugar (glucose) within the blood get into cells of the body to be used as fuel. When glucose can’t enter the cells, it builds up within the blood. This results in high blood glucose (hyperglycemia).
High blood glucose can cause problems everywhere the body. It can damage blood vessels and nerves. It can harm the eyes, kidneys, and heart. In early pregnancy, high blood glucose can cause birth defects during a growing baby.
Gestational diabetes.
This is often a condition in which the blood sugar level goes up and other diabetic symptoms appear during the antenatal period in a woman who has not been diagnosed with diabetes before. It happens in about 3 in 100 to 9 in 100 pregnant females.
What causes diabetes during pregnancy?
Some women have diabetes before they get pregnant. this is often called pregestational diabetes. Other women may get a kind of diabetes that only happens in pregnancy. this is often called gestational diabetes. Pregnancy can change how a female body uses glucose. this will make diabetes worse, or cause gestational diabetes.
During the pregnancy / antenatal period, an organ called the placenta gives the growing baby nutrients and oxygen. The placenta also makes hormones. In late pregnancy, estrogen, cortisol, and human placental lactogen can block insulin. When insulin is blocked, it’s called insulin resistance. Glucose can’t enter the body’s cells. The glucose stays within the blood and makes the blood glucose levels go up.
Who is at risk for diabetes during pregnancy?
The risk factors for diabetes in pregnancy depend upon the type of diabetes:
Type -1 Diabetes often occurs in children or young adults, but it may start at any age.
The overweight female is more likely to have Type 2 diabetes.
Overweight females are more likely to have gestational diabetes. It’s also more common in a female who has had gestational diabetes before. And it’s more common in women who have a loved one with Type 2 diabetes. Women with twins or other multiples also are more likely to possess it.
How is diabetes during pregnancy diagnosed?
Nearly all nondiabetic pregnant females are screened for gestational diabetes between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy period. A glucose screening and monitoring test are given during this time. For the test, you drink a glucose drink and have your blood sugar levels tested after 2 hours.
If this test shows a high blood sugar level, a 3-hour glucose tolerance test is going to be done. If the results of the second test aren’t normal, gestational diabetes is diagnosed.
What are the possible complications of diabetes during pregnancy?
Most complications happen in women who have already got diabetes before they get pregnant. Possible complications include:
Need for insulin injections more often
Very low blood sugar levels, which may be life-threatening if untreated
Ketoacidosis from high levels of blood sugar, which can even be life-threatening if untreated
Females with gestational diabetes are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes in later life. they’re also more likely to possess gestational diabetes with another pregnancy. If you’ve got gestational diabetes you ought to get tested a couple of months after your baby is born and every 3 years then.
Possible complications for the baby include:
Stillbirth:
Stillbirth ( fetal death ) is more likely in pregnant women with diabetes. The baby may grow slowly within the uterus thanks to poor circulation or other conditions, like a high vital sign or damaged small blood vessels. the precise reason stillbirths happen with diabetes isn’t known. the danger of stillbirth goes up in women with poor blood sugar control and with vessel changes.
Birth defects:
Birth defects are more likely in babies of diabetic moms. Some birth defects are serious enough to cause stillbirth or fetal death. Birth defects usually occur within the 1st trimester of pregnancy. Babys of diabetic moms can have defects in the heart and blood vessels, brain and spine, urinary system and kidneys, and digestive system.
Macrosomia:
This is often the term for a baby that’s much larger than normal. All of the nutrients and micronutrients the baby gets come directly from the mother’s blood. If the mother’s blood has an excessive amount of sugar, the pancreas of the baby makes more insulin to use this glucose. This causes fat to make and therefore the baby grows very large.
Birth injury:
Birth injury may occur thanks to the baby’s large size and difficulty being born.
Hypoglycemia:
The baby may have low levels of blood sugar right after delivery. This problem occurs if the mother’s blood sugar levels are high for an extended time. This results in tons of insulin within the baby’s blood. After delivery, the baby continues to possess a high insulin level, but not has the glucose from the mother. This causes the newborn’s blood sugar level to urge very low. The baby’s sugar level is checked after birth. If the extent is just too low, the baby may have glucose in an IV.
Trouble breathing (respiratory distress):
An excessive amount of insulin or an excessive amount of glucose during a baby’s system may keep the lungs from growing fully. this will cause breathing problems in babies. this is often more likely in babies born before 37 weeks of pregnancy.
Preeclampsia:
Women with diabetes are at increased risk for preeclampsia during pregnancy. To lower the risk, they ought to take low-dose aspirin (60 to150 mg a day) from the top of the first trimester until the baby is born.