Women with gestational diabetes usually have healthy babies, especially with good blood sugar control, appropriate obstetrical care, healthy diet, sufficient exercise and a healthy weight. These can significantly lower gestational diabetes risks
It is important to keep blood sugar levels in control. High blood sugar levels increase the risk of some complications.
Unlike pregnancies complicated by preexisting diabetes, gestational diabetes does not usually cause birth defects or deformities. This is because defects and deformities are usually associated with high maternal blood sugar levels earlier, in pregnancy during the first eight weeks of critical development. Gestational diabetes often develops later in pregnancy, at about 20 to 24 weeks.
Gestational Diabetes Risks Include:
- Preeclampsia: A potentially serious condition for both mother and fetus related to sudden increase in maternal blood pressure.
- Macrosomia or Big Baby Syndrome: High insulin and glucose levels in the fetus can cause accelerated growth and excess fat, increasing the risk for c-sections, birth trauma, fetal death, and neonatal complications.
- Hypoglycemia: High maternal blood sugar levels can also increase the risk for hypoglycemia or low blood sugar in the baby at birth.
- Jaundice: The baby may have yellowish pigmentation of skin and the whites of the eyes due to increased bilirubin in the blood.
- Respiratory Distress Syndrome: A breathing disorder present at birth.
- Low Calcium and Magnesium Levels: This may cause the baby to have spasms of the hands and feet, or cramping or twitching muscles.
- Higher Risk for Diabetes and Obesity: Infants of diabetic mothers have a higher risk of developing diabetes and obesity later in life even if they were not macrosomic at birth.
Sources:
Managing Gestational Diabetes: A Patient's Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy. National Institutes of Health. Accessed: September 23, 2010. http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs_details.cfm?from=&pubs_id=297
