Gestational Diabetes
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Gestational diabetes

 

Gestational diabetes is a form of diabetes found in pregnant women. There is no known specific cause but it is believed the hormones of pregnancy reduce a womans receptibility to insulin resulting in high blood sugar. Gestational diabetes affects an estimated two to three percent of pregnant women.

 

Risk factors for diabetes include:

 

  • a family history of type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes

  • maternal age - a woman's risk factor increases the older she is

  • ethnic background (those with higher risk factors include African-Americans, North American native peoples and Hispanics)

  • obesity

  • gestational diabetes in a previous pregnancy

  • a previous pregnancy that resulted in a child with a birth weight of 9 pounds or more

Frequently women with gestational diabetes exhibit no symptoms. However, possible symptoms include increased thirst, increased urination, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, bladder and yeast infection, and blurred vision.

 

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Testing and treatment

Generally a test for gestational diabetes is carried out between the 24th and 28th week of pregnancy.

 

Often, gestational diabetes can be managed through a combination of diet and exercise. If that is not possible, it is treated with insulin, in a similar manner to diabetes mellitus.

 

Associated conditions

Poorly controlled gestational diabetes can lead to the growth of a macrosomic or large baby. This in turns increases the need for instrumental deliveries (eg forceps, vacuum and caesarean section). These babies often need specialised care in the post partum period.

 

In the future the mother is at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

 

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The above article has been copied in part or in whole from an article on Wikipedia.org "The Free Encyclopedia."  It has been modified under the GNU Free Document License Section 5 in the following manner: (1) All links within the article have been removed, including text links such as "[#]"; (2) The "[Edit]" text and link have been removed [if you would like to update the article, you may do so from the original page]; (3) the table of contents links and text have been removed; and (4) all of the sections of the original article have not been copied. All of the above text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Document License.

URL of Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestational_diabetes

Date Article Copied: July 5, 2005

We will try to replace this article with an original biography in the near future, but we hope this will be of help to our visitors in the mean time.

 

 

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