Gestational Diabetes

Gestational diabetes is a form of diabetes that first occurs during pregnancy.

When and how is gestational diabetes diagnosed?

Most women are diagnosed between 24 and 28 weeks into their pregnancy. Gestational diabetes is normally diagnosed after a blood test shows a high level of glucose.

It is normally discovered because the doctor sent you to be screened for the presence of gestational diabetes. (If you were at a particularly high risk for getting gestational diabetes, your doctor may have sent you earlier, at 16 weeks.)

It may seem as though the 24th week is rather late for diagnosing such an important condition, but gestational diabetes normally occurs around this stage so earlier screening is of no benefit. It is the hormonal changes in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, along with the growth demands of the developing foetus, that increase a pregnant woman's insulin needs by two to three times that of normal. These hormonal changes normally help the baby to grow, but can sometimes lead to diabetes.

What are the risk factors?

The three main risk factors for gestational diabetes are being overweight, having a family history of diabetes and having had a baby that weighed over 9 pounds.