by Diabetes is too common disease these days, every 3rd person out of 10 is diabetic in this world. if you are pregnant then the first most doubt that will come to your mind is Does Diabetes affect My Pregnancy?
Type of Diabetes
Diabetes is a disease that affects how your body turns Blood sugar or glucose into energy. There are three types of diabetes: type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes
your body doesn’t produce insulin hormone that helps blood sugar get into the cells to be used for energy.
Type 2 diabetes
In this case, your body produces insulin but does not able to use it well.
Gestational diabetes
It develops during pregnancy.
Is Diabetes common During Pregnancy?
Throughout the World, about 3% to 5% of pregnant women have type 1 or type 2 diabetes and about 9 % to 12% of pregnant women develop gestational diabetes.
In recent years Gestation Diabetes i.e Diabetes during pregnancy has increased rapidly.
Diabetes in pregnancy varies from race and ethnicity. Asian and Hispanic women have higher rates of gestational diabetes
and black and Hispanic women have higher rates of type 1 or type 2 diabetes during pregnancy.
How Diabetes will Affect your Pregnancy
Diabetes during pregnancy can negatively affect the health of women and their babies.
Women having high type 1 or type 2 diabetes can have babies’ risk of birth defects, stillbirth, and preterm birth.
Additionally, high blood sugar throughout pregnancy increases women’s risk of having a cesarean delivery along with increases
babies’ risk of being born too large and developing obesity or type 2 diabetes in the future.
Type 2 Diabetes control measures
To control the risk of type 2 diabetes, follow these steps:
- Achieve a healthy body mass index. losing even a few pounds can help prevent type 2 diabetes.
- Increase physical activity to 30 minutes a day, at least 5 days a week. You can break up it as well for example, a brisk 10-minute walk 3 times a day.
- Eat a variety of healthy food , fruits and vegetables, limit fat intake to reduce your Weight as per your daily claories requirement.
What to Do if you Have Diabetes?
Before Pregnancy
For women having type 1 or type 2 diabetes, it’s important to see your doctor before getting pregnant. it provides an opportunity to discuss changes in blood sugar levels with doctors and will help to make adjustments to monitoring and medications, and check for and treat related health problems, such as high blood pressure.
During Pregnancy
Managing diabetes can help you have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby.
To manage your diabetes follow these steps
- see your doctor as recommended
- monitor your blood sugar levels
- follow a healthy eating plan developed with your doctor or dietician
- be physically active
- take insulin as directed (if needed).
After Pregnancy
If you had gestational diabetes then you are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes later in your life.
It’s important that you see your doctor to get tested for diabetes 4 to 12 weeks after your baby is born.
If you don’t have diabetes at that time then also continue to get tested every 1 to 3 years to make sure your blood sugar levels are in a healthy range.
Final words
Diabetes is a disease that can be controlled with proper medication and doctor consultation. With positive efforts and a mindset, you can easily control it and live a happy life.
I recommend you to read my latest post as well
Pregnancy Tips- what preventative health measures are recommended for an expecting mother
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