While pregnant, you’ve likely been trying to make nutritious food choices so your baby can grow healthy and strong. But sometimes, common pregnancy symptoms like nausea, food aversions, cravings and fatigue can make it difficult to eat a balanced diet.
And it’s easy to worry about your decisions during pregnancy, but some circumstances – like whether you get gestational diabetes – are mostly out of your hands. In fact, it has more to do with genetics than it does with your food decisions. And if you are diagnosed with gestational diabetes, know that it’s possible to have a healthy pregnancy and baby.
Below, we cover what gestational diabetes is, what it means for your baby and how it’s treated if you are diagnosed with it.
What is gestational diabetes?
While we don’t know exactly why gestational diabetes happens, if your glucose levels are too high, you may have gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes (GD) is a type of diabetes that only pregnant women can get – roughly 1 in 20 women have gestational diabetes during their pregnancy. If you had diabetes before you got pregnant, it wouldn’t be considered gestational diabetes since it didn’t develop during pregnancy, so you would continue to manage it like you did before pregnancy.
Here’s how it works: After you eat, your body turns the food in your stomach into glucose in your bloodstream. Your pancreas then creates a hormone called insulin, which allows the glucose to go from your bloodstream and into your cells. This gives you a much-needed energy boost.
When you’re pregnant, your body needs more insulin than it usually does for this process to happen. If your pancreas can’t keep up, the glucose levels in your blood will get too high. This is gestational diabetes. Your baby shares your bloodstream while in the womb. Nutrients and oxygen from your blood pass into your baby’s bloodstream through the placenta, and the placenta makes hormones that can cause your cells to resist insulin. Use this as a reminder that a gestational diabetes diagnosis isn’t your fault. It may be a natural outcome of your pregnancy.
But keeping your glucose levels under control will make sure your baby stays healthy, too. And you can take extra comfort in knowing that because gestational diabetes is a condition that only affects pregnant parents, it usually goes away after your baby is born.
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Symptoms of gestational diabetes
Gestational diabetes doesn’t usually have any symptoms, but if there are, they may be mild. The symptoms sometimes associated with gestational diabetes might sound pretty familiar:
- Increased thirst and hunger
- Fatigue
- Dry mouth
- Nausea and vomiting
- Frequent urination
- Blurred vision
- Genital itching
What gestational diabetes means for your baby
When you’re pregnant, your baby shares your bloodstream, so if the glucose levels in your bloodstream are too high, then your baby’s glucose levels are also high. In order to counteract these high glucose levels, your baby’s developing pancreas will work harder to produce more insulin to even things out. This means your baby is getting more calories than they need and that they could grow bigger than normal. Macrosomia, a condition where a baby has an above-average birth weight, could lead to a c-section, traumatic birth or early delivery.
After your baby is born and begins using their own bloodstream (rather than depending on yours), the doctor will test your baby’s blood sugar to make sure it’s stable and needs no extra intervention.
If your glucose is too high during pregnancy, your baby will make extra insulin to manage the extra glucose coming from you. This extra insulin may cause low blood sugar in your baby after delivery. And while it may not pose an immediate problem, gestational diabetes can put your baby at risk for obesity as a child and type 2 diabetes as an adult.
How gestational diabetes is treated
Take comfort in knowing gestational diabetes is treatable, and you may not have to continue managing diabetes after you give birth. Your doctor and care team are there to answer all your questions and help you adjust to the condition throughout your pregnancy. In general, here’s some changes you can expect during the rest of your pregnancy if you are diagnosed with GD:
1. Make changes to how you eat
The good news is most women can manage gestational diabetes and keep their blood sugar levels stable by changing their food choices and portion sizes. Of course, that’s easier said than done, especially if you’re dealing with pregnancy cravings. It can be challenging, but you don’t have to go at it alone.
A dietitian or nutritionist will help you develop a food plan that is beneficial to your pancreas, so it doesn’t have to work so hard to make insulin. This pregnancy diet will include eating healthy foods and drinks in three meals with snacks in between. By spreading out your meals, you can help keep your blood sugar from spiking.
2. Exercise or move your body regularly
Daily exercise during pregnancy can help keep your blood sugar levels stable. While your OB-GYN will work with you to create an exercise plan, they’ll almost always recommend walking. Walking is a low-impact exercise great for all expecting parents. Walking for 10-15 minutes after each meal can help control your blood sugar, along with 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, such as swimming, cycling and yoga at least five days a week.
3. Test your blood sugar
In addition to your new diet, you’ll also have to monitor your own blood sugar. You’ll be given a glucose meter and finger stick. First thing in the morning and after your three largest meals, you’ll use the finger stick and place a drop of blood into the glucose meter to test your blood sugar. You’ll continue visiting your care team to help monitor your results and manage the diabetes. This team may include a diabetes educator, registered dietitian, OB-GYN or maternal fetal medicine nurse practitioner.
4. Give yourself additional insulin
If your body doesn’t respond to your new eating pattern, you will need additional insulin. You’ll be given an insulin pen with small, thin needles. It’s common to need a dose of insulin four times per day, usually before each meal and at bedtime.
Gestational diabetes after pregnancy
Gestational diabetes will go away after delivery, but you’ll need to remember that the distinction is in the word “gestational.” You have to be pregnant to get GD but getting it once does increase the risk of getting it in a future pregnancy. It also puts you at a higher risk of developing diabetes later in life. If you have gestational diabetes, you have a 50% chance of getting type 2 diabetes.
However, developing type 2 diabetes can almost always be prevented by losing weight and exercising daily. Your doctor will keep monitoring you. You’ll be tested for diabetes 6-8 weeks after you’ve delivered your baby, again in one year and then every three years. If you don’t get diabetes within 10 years, your chances of getting the disease are very low.
Remember, a healthy pregnancy is still possible with gestational diabetes
Being diagnosed with gestational diabetes is difficult news to hear. Just remember that it’s treatable and your health care team is ready to provide support. And it can start as early as your first prenatal appointment. Here, you and your women’s health specialist can discuss any concerns or potential issues, including gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes may change your pregnancy plan, but your team will help you manage it to continue keeping you and your baby happy and healthy.