When will gestational diabetes occur?

Gestational diabetes will usually show up sometime in the months five and six of your pregnancy.

Symptoms of gestational diabetes?

In most cases there will be no symptoms, although in some cases there will be symptoms of high blood glucose (typical: more thirst and more need to pass water, more hunger). Many of these symptoms are common later in a pregnancy so it can be difficult to connect them to diabetes.

The dangers and effects

With high blood glucose levels, the fetus can grow larger and thereby making the delivery more problematic and with increased risk of injuiries to both mother and child. This may lead to the need for a ceasarean.

There is a risk that the child will show low blod glucose (hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia) after birth due to the connection between mother and child before birth (the childs pancreas will try to compensate for the extra need of insulin in the mothers body). This overproduction may in some cases continue after birth.

As mentioned above, there is a risk that the child will develop type 2 diabetes later in life, or overweight.

Gestational diabetes does normally not threaten the health of the mother. A minor problem can be the increased risk of high blood pressure.

Treatment

As with all diabetes, it is important to stabilize and contro the blood sugar level through meal planning and a strict diet.

The most important part of treatment is to control blood sugar levels. For many women, this means regular testing of blood sugar (glucose) levels, a carefully planned diet and regular exercise.

To monitor the glucose level, there are glucose test kits available from your local drugstore.

Symptoms of type 2 diabetes here.

Symptoms of type 1 diabetes here.