What is gestational diabetes? Diabetes means “too much sugar in the blood.” When pregnant women have too much sugar in their blood, that is called “gestational diabetes.” Women who have diabetes while they are pregnant need extra care to stay healthy. Up to ten percent of pregnant women in the US have gestational diabetes. 1 It is one of the most common pregnancy issues. 2
What’s happening inside my body?
When you eat starchy or sugary foods, those foods are broken down into tiny bits of sugar. Then, the bits of sugar move into the bloodstream. It’s good to have some sugar in the blood, but not too much. To help keep our blood sugar level from getting too high, our bodies produce a hormone called insulin. Insulin helps blood sugar get inside the cells that need it for energy. Around 24 weeks (about 5 and a half months) of pregnancy, your body needs two or three times as much insulin as usual. Most women can make this extra insulin. However, some women are not able to make the extra insulin they need. Those women then develop high blood sugar. 1. https://www.cdc.gov/. Accessed 11.03.22 2. Casagrande, S. S., Linder, B., & Cowie, C. C. (2018). Prevalence of gestational diabetes and subsequent Type 2 diabetes among U.S. women. Diabetes research and clinical practice, 141, 200–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diabres.2018.05.010
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