Gestational Diabetes Can Add Stress To A Pregnancy

You find out your pregnant and are so excited about the new baby that will be joining your family. You are looking forward to the day when your baby is born. You pick out the nursery décor and everything seems to be going so well until your doctor tells you that you have diabetes. The notion of having diabetes is a shock to the system. You seem to conjure up ideas of people having to give themselves insulin shots and constantly having to check your blood sugar. Pregnancy can be stressful without having gestational diabetes and yet this seems to add more to it. Just remember that if you have been diagnosed with it, stay calm. Adding stress to your pregnancy will not help you.

Medical science is not sure as to why some women are diagnosed with gestational diabetes during the pregnancy. The exact reason for it has yet to be established. It should not be suggested that they are completely clueless about it because gestational diabetes does leave some clues to the cause of the condition.

Hormones for instance are suggested to play a part in the condition. The fetus is taking in all of the nutrients from the mother. They are also taking in the hormones as these hormones provide for development of the fetus. It is believed that these very hormones can alter the production of the mother’s insulin.

As with all humans, the body uses insulin to process sugar and it is then used for energy. If insulin can’t do its job or there is a resistance to the insulin then it creates the condition known as hyperglycemia. It is estimated that approximately 4 percent of pregnant women are affected by this condition in the United States.

Other risk factors to acquiring gestational diabetes include the age of the mother. If she is over the age of 35 then she has a higher probability of Acquiring diabetes. Other factors include obese or overweight mothers and those who have PCOS or poly cystic ovarian syndrome.

Doctors will conduct tests to determine if a pregnant mother has gestational diabetes between twenty and thirty weeks into the pregnancy. This is now a standard practice by obstetricians in the United States as there is an increase in the number of women who are now affected by gestational diabetes.

Keeping a healthy diet and exercise program at the beginning of your pregnancy is your best bet to avoiding gestational diabetes. Your doctor can provide you with an exercise program that is right for you and your baby.