Currently Accepted Blood Glucose Levels in Pregnancy Pose Risks to Mother and Child
In February 2010, the News Center of Chicago’s Northwestern University published a brief report titled Gestational Diabetes on the Rise summarizing the results of a two year study into gestational diabetes, a form of diabetes that in North America affects an estimated 5 to 7 percent of women during their pregnancies, usually in the latter stages. But as the report’s title indicates, that current percentage may soon be raised, perhaps doubled according to conclusions of the recent investigation that will be reported in full in the March issue of Diabetes Care, the journal of the American Diabetes Association.
Diabetes is a serious health condition that occurs when the naturally occurring glucose that is produced and enters a person’s bloodstream after eating a meal, remains at an elevated level beyond the range that is normal for a healthy individual. This is caused by the impaired ability to absorb the glucose into the body’s cells where it is needed as a primary source of energy.
New diagnosis and treatment procedures recommended
Following almost two years of investigation, a group of fifty international gestational diabetes experts have concluded that blood glucose levels, currently accepted as normal for pregnant women, pose increased risks of serious complications and they recommend the adoption of new diagnosis and treatment criteria.
The investigation was coordinated by the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine using results obtained from the Hyperglycemia and Adverse Outcomes project involving 23,000 women from nine countries that began in 1999, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and from the results of a 2008 study led by Boyd Metzger, Professor of Metabolism and Nutrition at the Feinberg School of Medicine. Professor Metzger is the lead author of the report to be published in Diabetes Care.
Dr Metzger commented that the rate of gestational diabetes has soared by fifty percent in the last ten years, pointing out that all forms of diabetes are similarly being diagnosed in increasing numbers, at the same time as an increase in obesity in the general population.
It was also stated that blood sugar levels previously accepted as within the normal range are contributing to a sharp increase in overweight babies born with high insulin levels. Large babies may require early deliveries and more cesarean section. There is also the potentially life-threatening condition of preeclampsia in which the mother has high blood pressure presenting danger to the baby and herself.
While gestational diabetes ends with the birth, there remains an increased risk of developing a full type-2 diabetes at a later time and also an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
With pregnancy comes new responsibilities and challenges. Among the most important for the newly expectant mother is the need to maintain a state of good health and appropriate weight gain, perhaps requiring a different approach to diet. Diabetes authorities forecast that one third of all babies now being born will become diabetic. Not a happy prospect for the future.
A more encouraging comment by Professor Metzger was that recent studies showed that for mild gestational diabetes when women adopted improved dietary choices and monitored their blood glucose levels, it resulted in greatly reduced risks of complications, with smaller and healthy babies requiring fewer cesarean deliveries.
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