» Gestational Diabetes

What is Gestational Diabetes?

Gestational Diabetes is a type of diabetes which affects pregnant women who do not have Type 1 or Type 2 Diabetes. Because the symptoms it causes are very common in pregnancy anyway it is usually picked up by a blood test at around 24-28 weeks. It occurs when your body can’t produce enough insulin to cope with the increased demands of pregnancy and the increased insulin-resistant that occurs in your cells at this special time, leading to an increase in the concentration of glucose in the blood.

Am I at risk?

Any pregnant woman can develop gestational diabetes, but the risk increases if:

You are overweight, particularly if your BMI is over 30
Your family has a history of Type 2 Diabetes
You have had gestational diabetes before
You have previously had a baby who weighed over 4.5kgs (10lbs)
Your family origins are south Asian, Chinese, African-Caribbean or Middle Eastern

What are the symptoms?

Usually there are no symptoms (or very few) and the condition gets picked up during a routine blood test during the pregnancy. If your blood sugar is very high you might experience:

Tiredness
Thirst
Needing to urinate more often
Headaches
Shakiness

But as these symptoms often occur during pregnancy anyway you might not think anything of them!