It is a disorder of metabolism that may arise during
pregnancy. It consist in the alteration in the levels of sugar or glucose in
the blood. This is due to an anomaly in the production or functioning of a
hormone that is called insulin.
This
type of diabetes usually disappear after delivery. There is also the
possibility that diabetes existed prior to pregnancy and was expressed for the
first time during pregnancy. In this case it is not gestational diabetes and
often persist after the pregnancy.
Diagnosis of
gestational diabetes
Since we do not usually show
symptoms is necessary to the conduct of a test that is called test
O'Sullivan between weeks 24 and 28 of pregnancy.
In some cases this test is
performed or is repeated at other times or if women at risk of developing the
disease.
The test consists of
ingesting a certain amount of glucose. After one hour there will be a blood test to check
glucose levels.
It is believed that the test
is positive if the amount is greater than 140mg/dl. In this case the test usually
happen again within a few hours in order to confirm the diagnosis.
Risk of developing the disease
While this condition can
occur in any woman during pregnancy, there are certain factors that are
considered at greatest risk:
·
Having a family
history of suffering from diabetes.
· Having overweight or obese.
· Having more than
35 years.
Treatment
Because of the risk they pose
many medicines, usually avoids drug treatment unless required by the
gravity. Pregnant
women have to follow guidelines such as:
· Diet imposed by a
specialist low in sugars.
· Practice regular exercise.
· Making controls glucose
regularly.
Remarks
Women who suffer from this
disorder during pregnancy are at risk of returning to suffer diabetes in a
future pregnancy or at some other time in his life.
One of the risks to babies of
mothers with this disorder is to increase their weight and size too, which
could cause more problems during childbirth.
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