Risks in Pregnancy When Following Currently Accepted Blood Glucose Levels

Under the title Gestational Diabetes on the Rise, the News Center of Chicago’s Northwestern University has published a brief article that summarizes the conclusions of a recently completed Gestational Diabetes study coordinated by the university’s Feinberg School of Medicine. The full report of the study will be published in the March issue of the American Diabetes Association’s journal Diabetes Care.

The conclusions of the study referred to above, come after almost two years of investigation by an international panel of fifty gestational diabetes experts and included the detailed examination, interpretation, and assessment of results from earlier investigations of 23,000 women from nine different countries during a project funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), that began in 1999,

Diabetes is a serious health condition in which above normal levels of glucose exit in the bloodstream for an extended period of time. Glucose is a form of sugar needed by the cells of the body for energy but too much glucose in the blood is harmful. In pregnancy, too much glucose is bad for the baby.

The important conclusion of the study is that blood sugar levels now accepted by the medical profession as being normal during pregnancy are actually unsafe and put the mother and baby at increased risk of complications at birth. New criteria for diagnosis and treatment are recommended that identify lower blood glucose levels as diabetes indicators.

The conclusions are that present blood sugar levels now followed by doctors are leading to an increased number of overweight babies, often with high insulin levels. High insulin levels put babies at a greater risk of dangerously low blood sugar levels at birth.

Heavier and larger babies may require early deliveries and a greater likelihood for the need of cesarean surgery interventions, posing a risk of trauma for both mother and baby during delivery. Also mentioned was an added risk of preeclampsia, a condition wherein the mother suffers from high blood pressure that is harmful to the baby and herself.

Dr. Boyd Metzger, Professor of Metabolism and Nutrition at the Feinberg School of Medicine, the lead author of the forthcoming report in the journal Diabetes Care, commented that the rate of gestational diabetes has ballooned by fifty percent in the last ten years, not surprising considering that all forms of diabetes are being diagnosed in increasing numbers, just as there is also an increase in obesity in the general population.

Estimates vary, but using current values, it is thought that between five and seven percent of pregnant women develop gestational diabetes but that number would double by using the lower values identified in the study.

It is generally recommend that all women be screened for Gestational diabetes between 24 and 28 weeks’ gestation but some women are at greater risk than others and will be monitored more frequently from the very start.

Many higher risks follow from gestational diabetes
Gestational diabetes normally exists only during the pregnancy and ends after the birth of the baby. But it does increase the risks of developing, later in life, a full form of diabetes called Type-2 diabetes and there is also a higher risk for cardiovascular disease. The baby too is at higher risk of later becoming long-term obese which can also lead to diabetes. And Gestational diabetes may return again during subsequent pregnancies.

As a Type-2 diabetic myself, I must add emphatically that it something the expectant mother should take every possible step to avoid, it is an incurable condition that can interfere with the many joys of life, and I express that as gently as possible.

Sadly, based on current knowledge and prevailing trends, diabetes experts estimate that one third of all babies now being born will become diabetic. Sad indeed.

However, on a somewhat more optimistic note, professor Metzger states that recent studies indicated that in cases of mild gestational diabetes, when women followed improved dietary choices and monitored their blood glucose levels carefully the result was fewer cesarean deliveries, with smaller and healthy babies leading to greatly reduced risks of complications.

Pregnancy is a time for joy and anticipation but with it comes new challenges and responsibilities. It is essential for the newly expectant mother to understand the need to stay healthy and gain only the appropriate weight established by her physician. The healthy future for mother and child is worth the needed effort.