GESTATIONAL DIABETES

Gestational Diabetes

Gestational Diabetes

Introduction

Gestational diabetes mellitus is a type of diabetes commonly seen only during pregnancy in overweight/obese women. Women older than age 25 with a family history of diabetes are more likely to develop gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes affects about 4 percent of all pregnant women. It usually begins in the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy (between the 24th and 28th weeks).

Most often, GDM will disappear once a woman gives birth, but the chance she will go on to develop Type 2 diabetes later in life increase by 5-10 percent. If the maternal blood has too much glucose, ...