How to Manage Your Gestational Diabetes

There’s a form of diabetes that develops when you’re pregnant, called gestational diabetes. Here, we discuss the condition and ways to manage your symptoms for a healthy pregnancy.

There are three major types of diabetes: type 1 (sometimes called juvenile), type 2 (acquired), and gestational (develops during pregnancy).

Gestational diabetes mellitus occurs in about 9% of pregnant women in the United States. These are women who didn’t have diabetes prior to getting pregnant, and most of them have cases that resolve after delivery. It’s important to get treatment, though, as high blood sugar levels can harm both mother and fetus.

At Primecare Family Practice, board-certified family practitioners Maryline Ongangi, APRN, FNP-C and Lewis Nyantika, APRN, FNP-C treat all forms of diabetes, including gestational. The key with gestational diabetes is managing the symptoms to avoid complications during the pregnancy. In this blog, our team discusses how to do that.

What causes gestational diabetes?

Researchers are still uncertain exactly how gestational diabetes develops, but they do know certain aspects of what causes it.

Current theory suggests that the placenta — the organ that provides water and nutrients to the fetus — produces certain hormones that block the mother’s ability to use insulin effectively, a condition called insulin resistance. As a result, the mother may need up to three times as much insulin in her body to compensate for the blockage.

Gestational diabetes can also develop if the mother’s body isn’t able to make and use all the insulin it needs to sustain a pregnancy. Without enough insulin, glucose remains in the blood, causing hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) that can damage organs.

No matter the cause, it’s important to work with your doctor to manage the diabetes and thereby maintain a healthy pregnancy through birth. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or ask for help when you need it. With the right support, both you and the baby will remain healthy.

What are risk factors for gestational diabetes?

While anyone can develop gestational diabetes during pregnancy, certain factors can increase your risk. They include:

Heart disease
High blood pressure
Being overweight or obese before pregnancy.
Personal history of gestational diabetes
Family history of type 2 diabetes
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
Advanced maternal age
Prediabetes (history of higher-than-normal blood glucose)

Women over 25 who are of South and East Asian, Hispanic, Native American, or Pacific Island descent also have a higher risk.

What are complications of gestational diabetes?

Mothers who have gestational diabetes are at a higher risk for preeclampsia (high blood pressure during pregnancy), difficulty with labor, and are more likely to need a Cesarean delivery.

A large baby (over nine pounds at delivery) may injure the mother during a vaginal delivery and may itself suffer broken bones or nerve damage. That increases the need to deliver via Cesarean section.

The child, once born, is at a heightened risk of developing diabetes, obesity, and problems with their metabolism later in life. And mothers who have gestational diabetes, even if it resolves after birth, are at a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.

Managing gestational diabetes

If you have gestational diabetes, you’ll need more check-ups during your pregnancy to ensure everything is going well. Your doctor looks for two things: monitoring the fetus’s growth with ultrasound to ensure it isn’t growing too large, and reviewing your blood sugar range to ensure it isn’t too high or too low.

You monitor your blood sugar at home with a glucose meter, which includes a monitor, lancets, and test strips. At preset times, you take your blood sugar reading by pricking the tip of your finger with a lancet and wiping the blood on a test strip. Then, you insert the test strip into the meter, which displays a number — your blood sugar level.

You also record each of your meals and blood sugar readings on paper or an app, and your OB/GYN reviews the readings at regular intervals (often weekly or biweekly). Sometimes, the doctor will need to adjust what you eat (e.g. decreasing the amount of carbs) to keep your glucose levels well managed.

The combination of monitoring your blood sugar and eating diabetes-friendly food is often enough to manage gestational diabetes.

Some people, though, need insulin shots to help manage the condition. You can self-inject, usually into your stomach, thigh, or buttocks every day or multiple times a day. The doctor teaches you how to inject insulin, when to take it, and how much to take. You need to follow their instructions to the letter.

Always remember that gestational diabetes is treatable, and working with the team at Primecare Family Practice can help ensure a healthy pregnancy for you and your baby.

To get started, call our office at 817-873-3710, or book online with us today.