Gestational Diabetes Symptoms

Gestational diabetes, the condition in which pregnancy triggers insulin resistance and raises the mother’s blood glucose level (hyperglycemia), affects up to 8 percent of pregnant women every year in the United States.

Gestational Diabetes is a form of diabetes women are at risk of contracting when they are pregnant, and happens due to changes in hormones and a lack of insulin. If a woman gets high blood sugar when she's pregnant, but she never had high blood sugar before, then she most probably has gestational diabetes. However, gestational diabetes is a temporary illness and usually goes away after the baby is born.

Gestational diabetes creates dangers for the developing fetus inside the mother’s body. Gestational diabetes can be treated with insulin and changes in diet. Mothers who have had Gestational Diabetes are more susceptible to developing type 2 diabetes in the future.

Gestational Diabetes Symptoms
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Often, women with gestational diabetes have no detectable symptoms. However, gestational diabetes should be treated seriously, even if you have no gestational diabetes symptoms. Pregnancy causes most women to urinate more often and to feel hungrier, so having these symptoms does not always mean that a woman has diabetes.

Gestational diabetes is treatable, especially if you find out about it early in your pregnancy. Gestational diabetes is usually controlled by a healthy diet and regular exercise.

Uncontrolled gestational diabetes can result in a big baby and a difficult birth. Research showed that if a woman has gestational diabetes during pregnancy, the risk of obesity nearly doubles for her child, especially around the ages of 5 to 7. If not treated, gestational diabetes could cause problems for mothers and babies. The best way to control gestational diabetes is to find out you have it early and start treatment immediately.

Treating gestational diabetes greatly lowers the baby's chances of having problems. In women who are contracted with gestational diabetes, the glucose can't get into the cells, so the amount of glucose in the blood gets higher and higher.

Even if you didn't have gestational diabetes when you were pregnant before, there is a possibility that you might get it during your current pregnancy. If the level of sugar in your blood is normal, then you probably don't have gestational diabetes. If your doctor or nurse tells you that you have gestational diabetes, you will need to follow a treatment plan to keep the condition under control.

Almost all women are tested for gestational diabetes between the 24th - 28th weeks of pregnancy. These women with gestational diabetes can control their blood sugar levels by changing the way they eat as well as by exercising regularly. More and more women with gestational diabetes have healthy pregnancies and healthy babies because they follow their treatment plan and control their blood sugar levels.

Nearly 135,000 pregnant women area diagnosed with gestational diabetes every year, making it one of the top health concerns related to pregnancy.