How is gestational diabetes diagnosed?
Throughout your pregnancy, your healthcare professional will check your blood sugar. A two-part test is possible:
- Glucose challenge test: You sip on a delicious beverage. You will have a blood test to determine your blood sugar level after roughly an hour. Your healthcare professional will do a glucose tolerance test if your blood sugar is high.
- Glucose tolerance test: Only if your challenge test results are unusual will you undergo an oral glucose tolerance test. Before the tolerance test, you must fast (go without food for eight hours). Your blood is taken before, one, two, and three hours after you consume a sugary beverage by your doctor. An accurate diagnosis of gestational diabetes can be made using the tolerance test.
Why is it important to treat gestational diabetes?
If left untreated, gestational diabetes can lead to complications for both you and the fetus.
Pregnancy-related diabetes raises your chance of:
- C-section delivery if the foetus grows too large.
- Preeclampsia (pregnancy-related hypertension).
- Diabetes type 2.
How does gestational diabetes affect my baby?
If you have gestational diabetes, your baby’s more at risk for:
- Increased birth weight (of at least nine pounds).
- Issues with breathing at birth.
- Hypoglycemia. In infants, this may result in seizures.
- Obesity.
- Birth before term.
- Diabetes type 2 later in life.