• Macrosomia This means 'large baby'. If your blood glucose rises too high, then the extra glucose will affect your baby. The baby will make extra insulin to compensate for the extra glucose, and the combined effect is to make the baby grow bigger and faster than it should. A large baby can be hard to deliver.
• Hypoglycaemia of the baby If the baby is exposed to high glucose levels, it will produce more insulin to balance them out. After the baby is born, the high level of insulin will overwhelm the amount of glucose that it gets from milk, and so its blood glucose level will be too low.
• Jaundice Jaundice makes a newborn baby's skin look yellow. This is more common if the mother has gestational diabetes. It is caused because the baby has to break down blood cells after it is born, and the breakdown product is yellow (all babies have to do this). If the baby's liver is immature at birth, the skin can become yellowish.

There are a few rarer conditions that are associated with gestational diabetes, but they are less common than the ones listed here.

Although the list on these pages may be frightening, it is worth remembering that good control of your blood glucose and following the instructions of your healthcare team will reduce the risk and allow you to have a healthy baby.