Location:
Call: 040 4488 5333
[email protected]

11 April, 2021

Gestational Diabetes (GDM)

Diabetes diagnosed for the first time during pregnancy (gestation) is known as Gestational Diabetes. Gestational diabetes causes high blood sugar that can affect both Mother and baby.

There are two classes of gestational diabetes. Women with class A1 will be able to manage it through diet and exercise, while class A2 need to take insulin or other medications.

Blood sugar often returns to normal soon after delivery. But if you’ve had gestational diabetes, you are at a higher risk of getting type 2 diabetes. You’ll need to be tested for changes in blood sugar levels more often.

Symptoms

Women with gestational diabetes usually don’t have symptoms or may confuse them up to pregnancy. Most find out that they have it during a routine screening at 24-28weeks of Gestation.
You may notice that:

  • You’re thirstier than usual
  • You’re hungrier and eat more than usual
  • You pee more than usual

Causes

Insulin hormone is produced in the pancreas and regulates the body’s metabolism of fats and carbs, and helps the body turn sugar into energy.

Gestational diabetes occurs when hormones from the placenta blocks insulin and prevents the body from regulating the increased blood sugar of pregnancy effectively.

This causes high levels of sugar in the blood(Hyperglycemia), which can damage the nerves, blood vessels and organs in your body.

Risk factors

Risk factors for gestational diabetes include the following:

  • Overweight and obesity.
  • A lack of physical activity.
  • Previous gestational diabetes or prediabetes.
  • Polycystic ovary syndrome.
  • Diabetes in an immediate family member.
  • Previously delivering a baby weighing more than 4kgs.
  • Family History
  • Multifetal Pregnancies
  • Teenage or Elderly Pregnancies

Complications

Complications that may affect your baby

  • Excessive birth weight. Higher levels of blood sugar in mothers can cause their babies to grow too large and have birth injuries or need a C-section birth.
  • Early (preterm) birth. High blood sugar may increase risk of early labor and delivery before the due date. Early delivery may be recommended if the baby is large.
  • Serious breathing difficulties. Preterm babies born to mothers with gestational diabetes may experience respiratory distress syndrome.
  • Low blood sugar (hypoglycemia).Babies of mothers with gestational diabetes have low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) soon after birth. Severe episodic hypoglycemia may cause seizures in the baby. Frequent feedings and sometimes an intravenous glucose solution can return the baby’s blood sugar level to normal.
  • Obesity and type 2 diabetes in future. Babies of mothers with gestational diabetes have a higher risk of developing obesity and type 2 diabetes later in life.
  • Stillbirth. Uncontolled gestational diabetes can result in a baby’s death either before or shortly after birth.

Complications that may affect you

Gestational diabetes may also increase your risk of:

  • High blood pressure and preeclampsia. Gestational diabetes raises risk of high blood pressure, as well as preeclampsia.
  • Having a surgical delivery (C-section).
  • Future diabetes. If you have gestational diabetes, you’re more likely to get it again during a future pregnancy and type 2 diabetes later in life.

Prevention

There are no absolute steps for preventing gestational diabetes — but the more healthy habits you can adopt before pregnancy, the better.

  • Eat healthy foods. Choose foods high in fiber and low in fat and calories.Watch portion sizes.
  • Keep active. Exercising regularly before and during pregnancy can help protect you from developing gestational diabetes. 
  • Start pregnancy at a healthy weight. If you’re planning pregnancy, losing extra weight beforehand may help you have a healthier pregnancy.
  • Don’t gain more weight than recommended. 

Diagnosis

Initial glucose challenge test. You’ll drink a glucose solution. One hour later,  a blood test will be done to measure your blood sugar level. A blood sugar level of 190mg/dL indicates gestational diabetes.

Follow-up glucose tolerance testing. This test is similar to the previous test — except the sweet solution will have even more sugar and your blood sugar will be checked every hour for three hours. If at least two of the blood sugar readings are abnormal, you’ll be diagnosed with gestational diabetes.

Treatment

Treatment for gestational diabetes includes:

  • Lifestyle changes
  • Blood sugar monitoring
  • Medication, if necessary

Close management will help us avoid complications during pregnancy and delivery.

Lifestyle changes

Eat a healthy, low-sugar diet. Be sure you’re getting the nutrition you need. Follow a meal plan made for diabetics:

  • Replace sugary snacks like cookies, candy, and ice cream for natural sugars like fruits, carrots, and raisins.Include vegetables and whole grains, and watch your portion sizes.
  • Have three small meals along with two or three snacks regularly every day.
  • 40% of your daily calories should come from carbs and 20% from protein. Fifty percent of the carbs should be complex, high-fiber carbs, with fat being between 25% and 30%.
  • Take 20-35 grams of fiber a day. Foods such as whole-grain breads, cereals, and pasta; brown or wild rice; oatmeal; and vegetables and fruits will be helpful.
  • Total fat intake should be less than 40% of your daily calories. Saturated fat should be less than 10% of all the fat you eat.
  • Eat a variety of foods to make sure you get all vitamins and minerals. You may need to take a supplement to cover for deficiets. Stay active-Regular physical activity plays a key role in every woman’s wellness plan before, during and after pregnancy. Exercise helps to lowers your blood sugar, and regular exercise can help relieve some common discomforts of pregnancy, including back pain, muscle cramps, swelling, constipation and trouble sleeping.

Monitor your blood sugar-to make sure your level stays within a healthy range.

Medication

If diet and exercise aren’t enough, you may need Oral medication s or insulin injections to lower your blood sugar. About 10% and 20% of women with gestational diabetes need insulin to reach their blood sugar goals. 

Close monitoring of your baby

Close observation of your baby is important part of the treatment plan. It’s needed to check your baby’s growth and development with repeated ultrasounds or other tests. If you don’t go into labor by due date — or sometimes earlier — your doctor may induce labor. Delivering after due date may increase the risk of complications.

Follow-up after delivery

Check blood sugar levels after delivery and again in six to 12 weeks to make sure that your level has returned to normal. If your tests results are normal — and most are — you’ll need to have your diabetes risk assessed at least every three years.

SIMILAR ARTICLES

blog featured image

29 July, 2026

Irregular Periods: When to Investigate

Period irregularity is something many women experience at some point, and most learn to live with it, at least for a while. A late period during a stressful month, a lighter cycle after illness, a missed period after a long flight. These variations are common and usually self-correcting. The problem is that irregular periods are also how the body signals conditions that genuinely need attention, and because the irregularity can feel familiar, it is easy to keep waiting for things to normalise when they never will without proper evaluation.Knowing where the line sits between normal variation and something worth investigating is genuinely useful.What counts as irregularA normal menstrual cycle runs anywhere from 24 to 38 days, measured from the first day of one period to the first day of the next. Variation of up to eight days between the shortest and longest cycle is considered normal. Lengths ranging between 8 and 20 days of variation are considered moderately irregular, and variation of 21 days or more is considered very irregular.Changes outside the cycle length are also irregular. Periods that are either much heavier or lighter than normal, periods that are much longer or shorter than normal, periods between periods, and periods that are absent altogether, in a woman not pregnant, breastfeeding, or in menopause,
Read More
blog featured image

29 July, 2026

Fertility Decline: What Women Should Know

Conversations about fertility tend to happen too late. Women often begin thinking seriously about their reproductive timeline only when they are ready to conceive. At this point, some of the most important biological facts have already been playing out for years without their awareness. The decline in female fertility with age is one of the most consistently misunderstood aspects of reproductive health, and the gap between what women know and what the biology actually shows is significant.This is not about creating anxiety. It is about giving women accurate information early enough to make genuinely informed decisions.The Fundamental BiologyA woman is born with all the eggs she is going to have in her lifetime. Her eggs age with her, decreasing in quality and quantity. Age is the single most important factor affecting a woman's fertility.Females are born with a finite number of oocytes. The number of oocytes peaks in the womb at around 20 weeks of gestation and subsequently declines steadily until approximately age 32, after which the number decreases at a greater rate until age 37, beyond which oocyte numbers drop even more rapidly.This is not something that can be slowed by fitness, diet, or general good health. Even though women today are healthier and taking better care of themselves than ever before, improved
Read More
blog featured image

29 July, 2026

PMOS: Causes Beyond Hormones

Most patients understand Polycystic Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome, or PMOS, as a hormonal condition. Irregular periods, elevated androgens, and ovarian cysts on an ultrasound. The hormonal picture is real, but it is only part of the story. Decades of research have made it increasingly clear that PMOS is far more complex than a hormonal imbalance in isolation. It involves the metabolic system, the immune system, the gut, and genetics, all interacting in ways that produce a condition that looks different in every woman who has it.Understanding the fuller picture of what causes PMOS matters because it changes how the condition is managed and why lifestyle interventions work as well as they do.What PMOS Actually InvolvesPolycystic Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome is a complex endocrine and metabolic disorder, typically characterised by hirsutism, hyperandrogenism, ovulatory dysfunction, menstrual disorders, and infertility. The name itself reflects what the condition truly is. The metabolic component is not secondary to the ovarian and hormonal picture. It is central to it. Treating the hormonal symptoms without addressing the underlying metabolic drivers is one reason PMOS management often produces only partial results.Insulin Resistance Sits at the CentrePMOS insulin resistance, where cells throughout the body fail to respond normally to insulin, is considered the primary pathological basis for the reproductive dysfunction seen in PMOS.
Read More
Loading booking..