Gestational diabetes

Gestational diabetes is diabetes that happens for the first time when a woman is pregnant. Gestational diabetes goes away when you have your baby, but it does increase your risk for having it later.
It has generally few symptoms and most commonly diagnosed by screening during pregnancy. Diagnostic tests detect inappropriately high levels of glucose in blood samples.
Health care providers may use one of two
approaches* to test for gestational diabetes:
• One-step approach. After fasting (not eating or
drinking anything except water) for 4 to 8 hours,
a woman’s blood sugar level is measured before
and 2 hours after she drinks a certain amount of
a sugar drink. This type of test is called an oral
glucose tolerance test.
• Two-step approach. A health care provider
measures the blood sugar of a woman 1 hour
after she drinks a certain amount of a sugar
drink. Women whose blood sugar level is
normal after 1 hour probably do not have
gestational diabetes; those whose blood sugar
level is high after 1 hour then get an oral
glucose tolerance test to see if they have
gestational diabetes.
Gestational diabetes affects 3-10% of pregnancies, depending on the population studied.

Women with gestational diabetes are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (or, very rarely, latent autoimmune diabetes or Type 1) after pregnancy, as well as having a higher incidence of pre-eclampsia and Caesarean section;their offspring are prone to developing childhood obesity, with type 2 diabetes later in life. Most patients are treated only with diet modification and moderate exercise but some take anti-diabetic drugs, including insulin.