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Tips to Prevent or Manage Gestational Diabetes

A small percentage of pregnant women develop gestational diabetes. Most women lose the symptoms of diabetes after delivery of their baby; however, there is a chance that these women can develop type ii diabetes mellitus at some point in their lives. Pregnant women who have gestational diabetes seem to have a resistance to insulin. The women most prone to have gestational diabetes are those who have become overweight in the pregnancy; however, pregnant women of healthy weight can also become diabetic. The expectant mom cannot utilize the food she eats for energy when her body is resistant to insulin; therefore, excess glucose stays in the blood and often spills out through the urine.

It is important that you are treated properly for gestation diabetes, because the fetus’s pancreas will have to work very hard to produce insulin to utilize the excess glucose. Often the unborn baby will become overweight due to the excess blood sugar crossing the placenta into the baby. The unborn baby stores fat because there is more glucose going to the baby than the baby’s cells can use; thus the baby is overweight at birth. Most babies born of gestational diabetic mothers weigh 10 pounds or more. It is not at all uncommon for a diabetic mother to deliver a 15 or 16 pound baby. Weighing so much at birth is a serious matter, because the extra weight causes a strain on his/her heart and other organs.

Tips to Prevent or Manage Gestational Diabetes:

1.To reduce your chances of developing gestational diabetes, it will be prudent to live a healthy lifestyle before getting pregnant. If you are overweight before pregnancy, it is important to lose weight before trying to get pregnant.

2.When you are pregnant be sure to make good food choices to prevent becoming overweight. You shouldn’t try to lose weight while pregnant, but you should eat healthy with at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

3.When you know you want to be pregnant, you should be active and get into good shape. While you are pregnant it is important that you keep up your activity, unless your doctor advises you otherwise. Women who are more active during pregnancy tend to have easier deliveries than women who are sedentary for the duration of their pregnancy.

4.If you have gestational diabetes it is important that you adhere to your diet prescribed by your doctor. There is no set diet for gestational diabetes; however, your doctor may have you consult with a nutritionist to help you create a healthy eating plan. Each doctor or nutritionist may have slightly different diet plans to treat gestational diabetes.

5.If gestational diabetes cannot be fully controlled by diet, and activity, you may need to take insulin. If you are on insulin, you will need to monitor your blood sugar levels at scheduled times during the days with a glucometer. You will need to administer insulin according to your physician’s orders. Depending on the severity of your gestational diabetes you may have to take long acting insulin, short acting insulin, or a combination of both.

If you are a gestational diabetic, you may be able to control your blood glucose levels with diet and activity such as walking and swimming. If you do need medication to help control your blood glucose, oral medications are not recommended; insulin is the only medication that is approved by the American Diabetic Association.

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