Gestational diabetes is the type of diabetes pregnant women suffer from. It affects the mother in late pregnancy, when the baby’s body has been formed. At this stage baby is busy growing only so gestational diabetes doesn’t cause the kinds of birth defects.
Although it doesn’t cause any defect, but remaining untreated or poorly controlled, gestational diabetes can hurt the baby in some other ways. Gestational diabetes sufferers happen to have pancreas working overtime to produce insulin. Insulin does not lower the blood glucose levels and so, the extra blood glucose goes through the placenta, giving the baby high blood glucose levels. This way the baby’s pancreas makes extra insulin to get rid of the blood glucose.
In a nut shell, baby is getting more energy than it needs to grow and develop, the extra energy is stored as fat, that causes many other malfunctioning or diseases. For instance, the extra stored fats can also cause ‘macrosomia’, or a “fat” baby. Such babies are also vulnerable to damage to their shoulders during birth, and breathing problems, and above all they are at risk for type 2 diabetes.
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