How to have a healthy pregnancy for women with diabetes?

This is an automatically translated article.

The article is professionally consulted by Master, Doctor Nguyen Nhu Thu Truc - Obstetrician and Gynecologist - Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology - Vinmec Nha Trang International General Hospital

Gestational diabetes is an increasingly common disease and a worry for pregnant women. Gestational diabetes, if not detected early and controlled in time, can cause serious health consequences for both mother and baby.

1. What is gestational diabetes?

Gestational diabetes is a condition in which blood sugar is disturbed during pregnancy (from the 24th week of pregnancy).

2. How does diabetes affect pregnancy?

Diabetes complications affecting mother and baby:
High risk of having a baby with birth defects High blood pressure More amniotic fluid than normal causes premature rupture of membranes or premature birth. The fetus that receives too much glucose from the mother will grow rapidly in size and weight, making it difficult to deliver. Perineal incision wound, the incision is more difficult to heal, easy to get infection.

3. How does gestational diabetes affect the fetus?

Gestational diabetes, if not detected in time and well controlled, will cause serious effects to the health of the fetus such as:
Respiratory distress syndrome: the baby may be born prematurely when the lungs have not yet developed full. Hypoglycemia syndrome in the newborn immediately after birth: low blood glucose, causing seizures, coma and brain damage if not detected in time. The fetus is at risk for birth defects, growth retardation, or even death. Risk of jaundice after birth.

4. How does gestational diabetes affect blood sugar?

Pregnant women with diabetes are more likely to have low blood sugar. It can be caused by pregnant women not eating enough food, skipping meals, not eating at the right time of day or exercising too much. Symptoms of low blood sugar, such as dizziness, tremors, sudden hunger, sweating, or weakness.

5. How to control gestational diabetes?

Glucose levels can be controlled by a combination of eating right, exercising, taking medications as directed by your doctor, or doing blood sugar monitoring tests:
Building a healthy diet: Here is considered an extremely important stepping stone to help the fetus develop healthy. Because the baby will depend on the food you eat to absorb and grow. If pregnant women do not eat properly, it can cause glucose levels to rise too high or too low, thereby causing adverse health effects for both mother and baby.

Regular exercise: Helps keep glucose levels within normal range. In addition, active exercise also brings many other benefits such as weight control, increased energy for the body, better sleep, relief from back pain, constipation and bloating. Take medication as directed by your doctor: If a woman is taking insulin before becoming pregnant to control her diabetes, the insulin dose will usually be increased during pregnancy. Insulin is safe to use during pregnancy and does not cause birth defects. In some cases, insulin injections can also be given to control blood glucose. Hemoglobin A1C test: Helps measure the amount of sugar-binding hemoglobin in your blood. The more sugar-affected hemoglobin in the blood, the more likely it is that diabetes in recent weeks (4-6 weeks) is not well controlled. The test results show that the higher the HbA1C level, the higher the risk of diabetes complications.

6. Can gestational diabetes have a normal delivery?

During pregnancy, if the mother should apply a healthy and suitable diet, can control the amount of sugar in the body, the pregnancy will still develop normally and will not affect the delivery.
The decision to have a vaginal birth or a cesarean section depends on many different obstetric reasons, which can be difficult to predict during pregnancy. When a pregnant woman goes into labor, the doctor will check and predict the health status of the pregnant woman to decide whether to give birth naturally or by cesarean section.

7. Can a mother with diabetes breastfeed her baby?

Doctors recommend breastfeeding for women with diabetes. Because breastfeeding gives your baby the best source of nutrition to stay healthy and grow healthy, it's also good for pregnant women to lose weight after pregnancy and to help their uterus return to its normal size quickly. original size.

Right from the first days of antenatal care or pregnant women who have not had or are at risk of gestational diabetes can perform gestational diabetes screening so that doctors can assess the risk, control diabetes to pregnant women have a healthy pregnancy, easy childbirth.
Maternity package program at Vinmec International General Hospital helps customers complete the antenatal check-ups and necessary tests during pregnancy, including screening tests for gestational diabetes. Customers registered for Maternity Package are fully cared for and checked for health of mother and baby before birth - during childbirth and after birth, fully and conscientiously.

Please dial HOTLINE for more information or register for an appointment HERE. Download MyVinmec app to make appointments faster and to manage your bookings easily.

Article referenced source: Acog.org