Diabetes During Pregnancy

Diabetes is an age old disease, which is recorded as early as Greek civilization. This disease is characterized by excretion of large amount of very dilute urine. Diabetes can also be explained as a syndrome characterized by disordered metabolism and inappropriate blood sugar level.

On the basis of symptoms diabetes can be classified into two types - a) diabetes mellitus b) diabetes insipidus.

While diabetes mellitus is characterized by high blood sugar level, resulting from low insulin (hormone which controls the sugar level in blood) level, the characteristic symptoms are excessive urine production (polyuria), excessive thirst, and increased fluid intake (polydipsia) and blurred vision.

On the other hand, diabetes insipidus is characterized by excretion of large amount of severely diluted urine, which can not be reduced when fluid intake is reduced, leading to severe inability of kidney to concentrate urine.

World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes three main forms of diabetes mellitus; one of them is termed as gestational diabetes which occurs during pregnancy. Early diagnosis can cure the disease.

The basic cause of diabetes during pregnancy is that, mother's body is the sole supplier of glucose (sugar that results from the digestion of food) to the baby. This glucose is delivered to the baby through placenta. in return placenta produces certain hormones which helps the baby to develop, but on other hand these hormones prevents mothers body to use insulin and at later stage placenta increases these anti-insulin hormones which blocks the movement of glucose from the blood stream to the cell of the mother's body. This condition is termed as insulin resistance which leads to gestational diabetes.

There are several factors which increases the chance of developing diabetes during pregnancy, which includes the parents may have a family history of diabetes, obesity, the mother being over age 25 and the mother have a previous record of giving birth to a stillborn child or to a baby weighing nine pounds.

Though there are no obvious symptoms of gestational diabetes, but American diabetes association recommends all women to be screened for gestational diabetes between 24th and 28th week of pregnancy.

The following are the names of such screenings a) blood glucose test b) glucose tolerance test.

There can be many cases that the woman may have pre existing diabetes. In that case the mother must be warned against the complicacies that may arise during pregnancy. Careful planning and preconception care can allow the diabetic woman to have a problem free pregnancy.