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Every expectant mother would like the period of pregnancy to be associated with a wonderful experience that brings only nice moments. And for most women, this is what pregnancy is like, without problems and with a properly developing baby. Pregnancy complications can appear suddenly as well as give specific symptoms. They make life difficult for the future mother, but if diagnosed quickly enough, they do not cause havoc in her body and do not harm the baby. One such complication is gestational diabetes. What is it, how to diagnose it and how to treat it?
What exactly is gestational diabetes?
Gestational diabetes is a temporary condition similar to other types of diabetes. It is when the body does not produce enough insulin in response to a rise in blood glucose levels. In fact, the problem of elevated sugar in the urine or blood affects almost every second pregnant woman. The body then reacts to such a state with increased insulin production, which eliminates such overproduction that during the next test the result will be correct. However, in a small percentage of women, this overproduction is not enough, and persistently high levels of sugar in the urine and blood manifest themselves in the form of gestational diabetes.
How to recognize diabetes during pregnancy?
The basic test to confirm diabetes is the glucose tolerance test. This is a procedure that allows you to accurately show how your body responds to the presence of sugar in your urine or blood. The test is routinely carried out around the 5th month of pregnancy and consists of testing a series of blood samples taken after the mother-to-be has drunk a special glucose solution.
What are the symptoms of gestational diabetes?
The first alarming symptom should be the presence of sugar in the urine. But even its elevated level does not necessarily mean that you have gestational diabetes. Symptoms that often accompany this ailment of future mothers are increased appetite, thirst. Frequent and profuse urination, repeated often bacterial infections of the vagina, and an increase in pressure. These symptoms accompany about 2% of women and can be defined as a type of carbohydrate intolerance. In this case, doctors recommend a glucose tolerance test.
Who is affected by the problem of gestational diabetes?
There is a group of women who are in the high-risk group. These are future mothers after the age of 30, because the risk of diabetes increases with age, obese women, women with diabetes in the family, women diagnosed with glucose intolerance before pregnancy, mothers of children with a birth weight of over 4,5 kg, women with previous pregnancies were abnormal.
Is gestational diabetes dangerous for the baby?
At the current level of medicine and awareness of future mothers, the problem of danger does not exist. If the sugar level is controlled, the expectant mother follows a proper diet or uses medication, her pregnancy is no different from that without complications, and a healthy baby is born.
Disorders related to the level of sugar in the blood and urine cease to be a problem after childbirth, because in almost 98% of mothers, gestational diabetes disappears. Only in some cases can it return later if the woman does not care about a balanced diet and maintaining an appropriate body weight.