What is Gestational Diabetes (GD)?
It’s a metabolic illness that occurs during pregnancy. This condition generally results in high blood glucose that disappears after delivery. Gestational diabetes can develop at any stage of pregnancy, but is more common during the back half of pregnancy. However, you can still deliver a healthy new baby if you get the help needed from medical professionals and you correctly manage your blood sugar through exercise, healthy food, If you have GD.
Indeed though diabetes during pregnancy disappears after giving birth, you’re more likely to get type 2 diabetes in the future.
Treatment for gravid diabetes focuses on controlling blood glucose situations through diet, exercise, and drug.
Like type 2 diabetes, gravid diabetes develops when liver, muscle, and fat cells do not respond well to insulin — a hormone that regulates glucose (sugar) situations in the blood. As its name suggests, gravid diabetes develops only in pregnant women.
It’s caused by changes in the body ( including changing hormone situations) during gestation, and causes high blood glucose levels. However, the condition may be dangerous — or indeed deadly — to both the woman and her child, and can increase both of their threats of developing type 2 diabetes afterward in life, If left unmanaged.
The key to treating gestational diabetes is to tightly regulate blood glucose situations through life changes (diet and exercise) and, if necessary, drugs.
Gestational Diabetes Diet
Treatment for gravid diabetes always includes technical healthy mess plans — frequently recommended by a registered dietician — and regular exercise, according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA).
Generally speaking, diets for gravid diabetes focus on foods high in fiber and other important nutrients, and low in fat and calories.
This means they tend to favor vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, and glare on refined carbohydrates ( including sugar).
According to a 2008 report in the journal Reviews in Obstetrics and Gynecology, a diet that can help majority of women with gestational diabetes maintain a normal blood glucose range is one in which 33 to 40 percent of calories come from complex carbohydrates, 35 to 40 percent come from fat, and 20 percent come from protein.
Eating regular small meals throughout the day can also help keep your blood glucose position stable.
Exercise as Treatment for Gestational Diabetes
Regular physical exercise is very important to help keep your blood sugar under control.
Women with gestational diabetes should get at least 30 minutes of moderate to intensive exercise at least five days a week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This can include walking quickly, swimming, dancing, low- impact calisthenics, or actively playing with children.
Potentially dangerous exercise — including basketball and soccer (which can result in balls hitting the stomach), horseback riding, and downhill skiing — should be avoided.
During the first trimester of your gestation, you should also avoid exercises that need you to lie on your back, which could put pressure on certain blood vessels and accidentally limit blood flow to your baby.
Ask your medical professional before lifting weights, jogging, or performing other muscle-and bone- strengthening exercises during your gestation.
Monitoring Blood Glucose Range
As with any form of diabetes, it’s important to regularly check your blood glucose position with a glucose device.
Still, you should check your blood glucose position first thing in the morning, and one to two hours after each meal of the day, If you have gestational diabetes.
According to the ADA, your blood glucose range should read:
- 95 milligrams/deciliter (mg/dl) or even lower upon waking up, and before you eat food
- 140 mg/dl or lower one hour after a meal
- 120 mg/dl or even lower at least two hours after you eat
Still, you may need to take medicine to further lower your blood glucose situations, If you do not reach these target situations through diet and exercise alone.
Gestational Diabetes Drugs
Gestational diabetes can be treated with regular exercise and a balanced and healthy diet. Still, if diet and exercise fail to keep your blood glucose position within the proper position, you may need to use drugs. Insulin injections are typically specified to women with GD. You can take a fast- acting insulin, similar as Novolog or Humalog, that should be administered before you eat.
Alternately, you can use a long- acting insulin, similar as Lantus, to help control the position of your blood sugar when you go to sleep. The quantity of insulin you’ll need will vary depending on your weight and the date you’re scheduled to give birth. However, you may need to take a larger quantity of insulin, If you’re approaching near your delivery date. Oral diabetes medicines, like metformin and glyburide, can also be used to treat GD.
Insulin injections are the standard drug for gestational diabetes. Your medical professional may specify a fast- acting insulin that you take prior to a meal, or an intermediate-or long- acting ( basal) insulin that you take at bedtime or upon waking.
As an alternate — or in addition — to insulin, your medical professional may specify an oral drug, similar as Glynase, Diabeta, or Micronase (glyburide); or Glumetza, Glucophage, Fortamet, or Riomet (metformin). You should know that these medicines are not approved for gestational diabetes by the Food and Drug Administration.
This being the case, glyburide and metformin appear to be an effective and safe option for gestational diabetes, according to the 2008 published report.