Treat Your Gestational Diabetes for Better Health

by Kim Neyer | More from this Blogger

Did you know that around five percent of women are diagnosed with gestational diabetes during pregnancy. Unlike Type II diabetes, gestational diabetes is limited to pregnancy. You are cured once you have your baby. That does not mean that gestational diabetes is without its risks, however. You wouldn't want to end up with an over-sized baby, for example! That's just the tip of the iceberg.

Recently I was notified of a new study coming out in the latest issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Mark Landon and a team of investigators from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development did a clinical trial to test the benefits of healthy diet and frequent glucose monitoring for women diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Pregnant woman suffering from gestational diabetes are usually treated with a controlled diet and are encouraged to check their blood sugar often, but up until this point, there hasn't been any proof of whether this treatment was truly beneficial, particularly with those women who are diagnosed with very mild gestational diabetes.

The study found that women who eat a healthy diet and monitor their glucose are half as likely to deliver overweight babies and are half as likely to experience shoulder dystocia at birth. Women in the study also were less likely to have a cesarean and less cases of pre-eclampsia were seen. That's good news, especially considering the fact that the treatment is completely natural. When you think about it, all pregnant women should be eating healthy foods anyway. The higher your sugar intake, the more likely you are to have a heavier baby, regardless of whether you have gestational diabetes. Heavier babies mean more complicated deliveries. I used to tell my son when he was still in my belly, "I want you to grow up nice and big, but not until after you're born."

Since the mother's health impacts the child's future risks for diabetes and other health issues in the future, it is in everyone's best interest for the mother to carefully monitor her glucose and eat a balanced diet.

Learn more about Kim Neyer

Kim is a freelance writer, photographer and stay at home mom to her one-year-old son, Micah. She has been married to her husband, Eric, since 2006.

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