More women than ever before are carrying fetuses while they are diabetic. This can have an effect on the mom as well as the developmental process for the baby. Fortunately, modern medicine is doing all it can to make this process less difficult for diabetic women.

Why do some women, with no prior history of diabetes, develop diabetes over the course of their pregnancy? Known as gestational diabetes, this condition occurs in approximately two out of every 100 women who become pregnant. In a normal pregnancy process, the woman’s placenta creates a variety of hormones to nourish the fetus and help it to grow and develop. Of these hormones, some of them have anti-insulin properties. In the women who develops gestational diabetes, the hormones decrease the body’s sensitivity to insulin so much that the body over produces glucose to compensate. The result may end up causing diabetes. In the women to whom this occurs, it usually happens around the 22nd week of the pregnancy.

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Normally, the woman’s blood glucose levels will return to normal once the baby is delivered. In some cases, however, the diabetes will remain. Also, women who develop gestational diabetes, do have a greater chance of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. To lessen the chances of this happening, the woman should work with her doctor and nutritionist to develop a post-delivery plan to return her body’s glucose and hormonal levels to normal as soon as possible. This will usually involve developing healthy meal plans, starting an exercise program, and scheduling follow-up blood work with her doctor.

In the case of a woman who is already diabetic when the pregnancy begins, special precautions are necessary. In the first month of the pregnancy, the fetus has already begun to develop. The fetus’ only source of food is glucose from the mother. If the blood glucose levels are high, the excess sugar can impact the organs of the developing fetus – possibly resulting in birth defects or a miscarriage. That’s why, early on, it’s important that the doctor ensure that the blood glucose levels of the mother are stable and under control as early in the pregnancy as possible.

Many diabetic women are on oral medications. Even though some of the oral diabetes medications have been tested for safety in pregnant women, some women may be advised by their doctor to use insulin during the pregnancy. This is because many doctors believe that insulin is the safer choice for the fetus in controlling blood glucose levels.

Essentially, the primary reason for the preference of insulin is simply that it has a longer history of tests, studies, and observations surrounding it. In addition, many oral medications only work with type 2 diabetes. Fortunately, insulin therapy has been used by doctors for many decades making the woman’s chances for a successful pregnancy nearly as good as for those women without diabetes.

Some women also make use of herbal remedies to control their diabetes during their pregnancy. Any woman that does this, however, should make sure that her doctor is aware of this and that her doctor approves.