How does gestational diabetes affect maternal and child health?

What is gestational diabetes?

Gestational diabetes is a multi-degree glucose disorder that occurs and develops in the 24 -28 week period. The body loses its inherent essential insulin function. Blood sugar levels in the blood thus increase, leading to complications, seriously affecting the health of mother and baby.

Causes of gestational diabetes

In the body, the pancreas and organ function to produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar. During pregnancy, the placenta's hormones exert, disturbing the insulin production process needed. Therefore, the pancreas must produce more insulin than normal, thus having insulin resistance.

Because the pancreas produces insufficient response, blood sugar levels rise and lead to disease. The main cause of this disease in pregnant mothers is due to: Pregnancy aged 35 or older, overweight and obesity, family or previous diabetes itself, multi-function ovarian syndrome, childbirth over 4kg, the child dies at the first pregnancy .

Signs of gestational diabetes

In order to identify and discover the mother's disease, pregnant women should pay attention to some of the following symptoms to the hospital to see the most results:

- Sudden weight loss, unexplained: For pregnant mothers, the pregnancy process will have to increase kilograms properly and often will have to increase from 7 -15kg. If the pregnant mother suddenly loses weight for unknown reasons, this is a sign of the disease.

- Fatigue and weakness in the body: In the early months of pregnancy, pregnant mothers often have morning sickness, but during the pregnancy, fatigue and body are thin and the mother elects to be careful because this is a sign of disease. .

- Always thirsty, continually urinate: The state of drinking a lot of water, the frequency of urination more than 10 times / day, the pregnant mother can get sick.

- Private area or itching, fungus, discomfort: This sign makes many mothers mistakenly vote for gynecological disease, but this is also a sign of diabetes maternal vote to note.

- Wounds, scratches that are difficult to heal: This sign of gestational diabetes will make it difficult for pregnant women to detect, but this is also a manifestation of this disease.

When is gestational diabetes detected?

Around the 20th week of pregnancy, the process and activity involved in insulin production are affected by reproductive hormones. This is why pregnancy screening screening is required periodically for pregnant women whether they have a medical history or not. The time of illness usually appears from the 24th to 28th week of pregnancy, although symptoms may still occur a few weeks before or after this period.

During pregnancy, the mother's body needs to increase the amount of sugar because of the need to increase energy. The ideal situation is when insulin production is adequate to match the amount of sugar that needs to be increased. But not every pregnant woman achieves this ideal state.

Is gestational diabetes dangerous?

If gestational diabetes is controlled and monitored by patients and doctors, the risk is greatly reduced. The main purpose in treating diabetes is to reduce blood glucose levels to normal levels and produce appropriate amounts of insulin according to the individual needs. It takes time to estimate the amount of insulin needed during the day.

Pregnant women with gestational diabetes should be monitored throughout pregnancy and childbirth. Complications occur when labor is prolonged and the mother has an inappropriate amount of sugar.

How does the disease affect your baby?

If left unchecked, excess glucose in the blood will make the fetus grow quite large. Due to compatibility with the amount of sugar that crosses the placenta to the blood supply, the fetus will increase insulin secretion to consume this sugar and store energy under the fetal fat layer. Babies of diabetic mothers can weigh up to 4kg at birth. That's why when a newborn is weighing too much, the doctor must suspect gestational diabetes even after being diagnosed without prenatal disease.

To prevent possible health problems for babies, doctors must monitor diabetes and treat it to control blood sugar levels. Normally, the blood sugar level of the mother will be higher before giving birth.

Children of diabetic mothers do not have diabetes. Normally, when 'fed', the amount of blood sugar is self-balanced and the baby is not adversely affected. The biggest concern is in 4-6 hours after birth, the baby is more prone to hypoglycaemia (hypoglycemia). Therefore, babies need to be tested regularly after birth until blood sugar levels (BSL) are stable and continue throughout the first 24 hours.

How to treat gestational diabetes

Insulin injections: Inadequate blood sugar levels, imbalances cause complications for pregnant women, so insulin injections are the best treatment for balancing, controlling sugar levels in a stable manner.

Scientific diet, regular exercise: Pregnancy, mothers have to eat enough substances and energy for the body but are suffering from diabetes, the mother elects to balance the amount of starch just enough, not eat a lot of crystals powder, eat less fat-rich foods, supplement high-fiber foods, vitamins . Regular exercise also helps reduce blood sugar, at equilibrium levels. A pregnant mother can practice yoga, walk, swim .

Careful monitoring of blood sugar: Pregnant mothers should regularly go to hospitals to measure blood sugar to know the blood sugar level in the blood that has appropriate treatment, protect the health of mother and baby best.

Gestational diabetes is a disease that seriously affects the health of mothers and babies. So pregnant mother needs to periodically check to know if she has this disease or not, so there are treatments and diets for scientific activities to ensure health and safety for mother and fetus.