Gestational Diabetes Physiology

Gestational diabetes is a condition in which women without any previous history of diabetes exhibit high blood glucose levels during pregnancy. The term “gestation” implies that this disorder is induced by pregnancy, may be due to exaggerated physiological changes in glucose metabolism.

All women have some degree of impaired glucose intolerance during pregnancy as a result of all the hormonal changes that occur during this period. This means that the blood sugar is higher than normal, but not high enough to have diabetes. During the latter phases of pregnancy these hormonal changes place them at a risk of gestational diabetes.

During pregnancy, increased levels of certain hormones made in the placenta shift nutrients from the mother to the fetus. The other hormones are produced by the placenta to help prevent the mother from developing low blood sugar. They work by stopping the action of insulin. During the course of pregnancy these hormones lead to progressive impaired glucose intolerance. In order to decrease the glucose levels, the body makes more insulin to shuttle glucose into the cells.

The mother’s pancreas is able to produce more insulin to overcome the effect of the pregnancy hormones on glucose levels. However, if this happens at times, the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to overcome the effect of the increased hormones, glucose levels would rise resulting in gestational diabetes.

This situation normally corrects itself once the woman has delivered. Gestational diabetes has to be treated immediately as the effects could be on the child. The child could be born with juvenile-diabetes type 1 where the pancreas does not meet the normal insulin needs.

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Gestational diabetes is tested routinely during prenatal doctor visits. The doctor decides when or how early it should be checked. If the woman is at high risk for gestational diabetes, the blood glucose level may be checked at the first prenatal visit. If the results are normal, she is checked again sometime between 24th and 28th weeks of pregnancy. If the woman is at a low risk for diabetes, the doctor may decide that the patient wouldn’t need to be tested at all. More..