Gestational diabetes develops during pregnancy. Like other forms of diabetes, it affects how your cells use sugar. It can affect your pregnancy and your baby’s health.

For most women gestational diabetes won’t cause any symptoms, but your doctor will check you for gestational diabetes as part of your prenatal care. If you develop gestational diabetes, you will need check-ups more frequently than usual. It will most likely occur during the last three months of your pregnancy, where you will have your blood sugar levels and your baby’s health monitored.

It is not known exactly what causes gestational diabetes, however it is believed that the placenta which connects your baby to your blood supply produces more and more insulin-countering hormones, these hormones cause a rise in blood-sugar levels that can affect the growth and welfare of your baby.

Gestational diabetes can cause your baby to be born early (premature) and with respiratory distress syndrome – a condition that makes breathing difficult. Babies can be born with low blood sugar levels (hypoglycaemia). Severe hypoglycaemia can cause seizures in babies. Babies born to mothers with gestational diabetes are more likely to become a type two diabetic later in life.

In mothers, gestational diabetes can cause preeclampsia, a serious complication of pregnancy that causes high blood pressure and other symptoms that can threaten the lives of both baby and mother.  You are more likely to suffer with gestational diabetes with future pregnancy, and then later in life with type two diabetes. Lifestyle choices can help reduce the risk of future type two diabetes.

Monitoring your blood sugar levels as many as five times a day, is important to ensure your levels stay within a healthy range. Your health care team will monitor your blood sugar levels during labour and the birth.

Exercise and eating a healthy diet are the best way to control your blood sugar, but if these aren’t enough some insulin injection may be necessary. Between 10 and 20 percent of women with gestational diabetes will need insulin injections. Some doctors will prescribe oral blood sugar control medications. Close monitoring of your baby throughout pregnancy is essential.