Gestational diabetes: What to do and how to prevent it?

What is gestational diabetes? How can pregnancy diabetes be prevented and treated? Let’s try to provide some answers to these questions.

What is gestational diabetes?

Gestational diabetes is referred to when reduced glucose tolerance or frank diabetes occurs for the first time during pregnancy. 4% of pregnant women have this condition. The disorder, in this case, tends to disappear spontaneously after childbirth but constitutes a risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes in the future.

Gestational diabetes is easily diagnosed because fasting blood sugar is an exam that is repeated every month during pregnancy. If the gynecologist notes a significant increase in this value, he will provide further diagnostic investigations.

Treatment of gestational diabetes

When gestational diabetes is diagnosed, it is important to check the blood glucose values in the most appropriate way to safeguard the health and the correct development of the fetus.

The woman diagnosed with this condition will then be sent to a diabetologist who will follow her during pregnancy. The measures that are usually taken in case of gestational diabetes are:

• Daily blood-glucose monitoring, to be carried out at home, with the appropriate devices.
• A correct diet aimed at keeping blood sugar levels under control without subtracting the nourishment necessary for mum and baby.
• Plenty of water consumption.
• Compilation of a daily diary to record the blood-glucose values, the foods consumed, and possibly, the physical activity performed.

If the progress of the pregnancy allows it, moderate but regular physical activity is recommended. It is also essential not to smoke or drink alcohol, but this applies to all pregnant women, not just those who develop gestational diabetes.

In more serious cases, the diabetologist can prescribe the use of insulin. Usually, only by changing lifestyle and food do you get good results.

Can gestational diabetes be prevented?

Diabetes, even gestational diabetes, has a genetic component, but much can be done to prevent it with the right nutrition and a correct and healthy lifestyle. According to an old saying, one should eat for two in pregnancy: nothing more wrong.

During these critical nine months, you should follow a very balanced diet that provides all the necessary nutrition without being excessively caloric nor too rich in fats and carbohydrates.

A diet with a high content of animal fats and simple carbohydrates favors the development of gestational diabetes and too high an increase in body weight, another factor that affects blood sugar levels.

The pregnancy increase in pregnancy should not exceed 22/26 lbs. However, if the progress of the pregnancy allows it, it is advisable to follow an active lifestyle without obviously overdoing it.

The glucose load test

The glucose load test is an examination that can be performed at 16-18 weeks of pregnancy and then repeated at 28 weeks if the first determination was normal, in some women with particular risk factors (for example, women who developed gestational diabetes in a previous pregnancy). However, the same test can be done only once at 24-28 weeks of gestation in women who have other risk factors (for example, women over 35, overweight, or familiar with diabetes).