1. What is gestational diabetes?
Gestational diabetes is before pregnancy a woman has never been diagnosed with diabetes, but during pregnancy blood sugar levels are elevated. This means that after pregnancy, if a pregnant woman shows signs of hyperglycemia, she will be diagnosed as having the disease.
In addition, another case is that pregnant women diagnosed with diabetes before pregnancy are called “Pregnant when you have diabetes”, these 2 types are different so people need to distinguish clearly so as not to be confused. In addition, it is also necessary based on the mother’s condition and the baby’s condition to be able to make the most accurate assessment, so people have also established a stricter standard system than conventional diabetes.
2. Causes of Gestational Diabetes – Why Do Blood Sugar Levels Rise Easily During Pregnancy?
Normally after eating, food will be digested, absorbed, converted into sugar into the bloodstream. But this sugar will stay in the blood but cannot be converted into energy to help the body function, so the pancreas will secrete a hormone called insulin throughout the body that is responsible for converting sugar into energy.
But during pregnancy, a hormone secreted from the placenta reduces insulin secretion (insulin resistance), so blood sugar levels are easier to rise.
In women with normal pregnancies, it is possible to adjust the high secretion of insulin from the pancreas so as not to raise blood sugar, but if the pregnant woman has low insulin secretion or strong insulin resistance, blood sugar levels will be elevated.
3. Symptoms of Gestational Diabetes – Effects on Mother and Baby
Symptom
In fact, the disease does not have typical symptoms that can be recognized on its own. Moreover, the symptoms will vary depending on the mother’s body during pregnancy, even symptoms such as excessive urination can be difficult to recognize. Therefore, to be accurate and safe for both mother and baby, get blood and urine tests as soon as possible.
Complication
The scary thing about gestational diabetes is that complications can happen to both mother and baby. Because the mother and baby’s bodies are connected, when the mother’s blood sugar is high, the glucose in the blood will also be passed to the baby by the placenta. The baby himself will secrete insulin to reduce this glucose, but insulin is also a growth hormone and if too much insulin will cause him to overgrow, leading to many dangerous complications. Here are some complications that can occur in mother and baby:
– Maternal complications
+ Premature birth
+ Hypertensive syndrome in pregnant women
+ Too much amniotic fluid
+ Urinary tract infections
– Complications in the fetus
+ Excessive fetal growth (giant pregnancy)
+ There are birth defects
– Effects on infants
+ Shortness of breath
+ Hypoglycemia
However, gestational diabetes is not the same as pregnancy when you have diabetes, because gestational diabetes can be relatively easy to control blood sugar levels, if you can control glucose in the blood appropriately, mothers can prevent the dangerous complications mentioned above.
4. People at risk of gestational diabetes
Mothers with one or more of the following factors will also have a higher risk of gestational diabetes, so pay attention to go to the doctor early to easily control and treat.
+ In the family (especially grandparents, parents) there are people with diabetes
+ Pregnancy when 35 years old or older
+ Obesity
+ Positive urine sugar test
+ Having given birth to a deformed or excessively enlarged child
+ Have ever had a premature birth or miscarriage
5. Gestational diabetes testing and diagnosis
If a pregnant woman with gestational diabetes does not control her blood glucose well during pregnancy, advanced disease can cause many complications for both mother and fetus. On the other hand, if a pregnant woman is diagnosed and treated appropriately, gestational diabetes will not be a scary disease.
In order to be able to diagnose and treat the disease early, in early pregnancy (first or before visit after 10 weeks of pregnancy) and mid-pregnancy (24-28 weeks gestation), pregnant women should have a blood glucose screening test and, if positive, a 75g glucose tolerance test (OGTT) be performed.
The 75g glucose tolerance test is a test for pregnant women in a hungry state to drink 75g of dissolved glucose in water, then take a blood sample and measure blood glucose.
+ Fasting blood glucose (before glucose administration) ≥92 mg/dl
+ Value 1 hour (1 hour after glucose ingestion): ≥180 mg/dl
+ 2-hour value (2 hours after glucose ingestion): ≥153 mg/dl
If the pregnant woman has values that coincide with 1 of the 3 items above, she will be diagnosed with gestational diabetes.
6. Gestational diabetes treatment – Do not use oral medications
Gestational diabetes treatment will mainly be the method of eating. Specifically, the eating method will change depending on the number of weeks of pregnancy, the condition of mother and baby so that it can be adjusted accordingly. During pregnancy, the amount of energy needed is more than during non-pregnancy, and is also divided by the week of fetal age. In addition, to avoid blood sugar levels rising too suddenly, pregnant women are also encouraged to divide a day into 5-6 meals.
If specific dietary methods have been given but blood glucose remains high, insulin injection therapy is required.
7. Will gestational diabetes go away after the birth of the baby?
Because after birth, the placenta will also cease, and accordingly the hormone that inhibits the action of insulin also disappears, blood glucose will drop and the body will return to normal. However, in the long run, according to a recent report, more than half of mothers who have had gestational diabetes after 20-30 years develop diabetes, so manage your blood sugar well.