Diabetes complicates more than 100,000 pregnancies every year. Women with all types of diabetes (Type I, Type II, and gestational) and their infants are at greater risk for a number of different complications. Women who are diabetic and become pregnant face different risks than a woman who develops diabetes during the later stages of pregnancy (gestational diabetes).
Diabetes is complicated by the hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy. These hormones antagonize and break down insulin; meanwhile the mother's body produces increased amounts of glucose.
High levels of glucose (hyperglycemia) in the mother's body circulate to the fetus via the umbilical cord blood. This occurs throughout the pregnancy, and is especially dangerous during the process of organogenesis (the development of the baby's internal organs). It is at this time that the risk of congenital anomalies is very high.
Pregnancy care for a diabetic woman should begin before she becomes pregnant. It is very important to discuss plans to become pregnant with your health care provider months in advance so that preconception care can be instituted to increase the chances of a healthy, uncomplicated pregnancy.
Achieving and maintaining euglycemia (normal blood glucose levels) is the main goal of management for diabetic pregnancies.
This MediFocus Guide contains an extensive listing of citations and abstracts of recent journal articles that have been published about this condition in trustworthy medical journals. This is the same type of information that is available to physicians and other health care professionals. A partial selection of journal articles that are abstracted in this MediFocus Guide includes:
Peri-implantation embryopathy induced by maternal diabetes. Journal of Reproduction & Fertility - Supplement. 2000
Kinetics of palmitic acid transport in insulin-dependent diabetic pregnancies: in vitro study. Pediatrics International. 2000
Effects of diabetic pregnancy on the fetus and newborn. Seminars in Perinatology. 2000
Elective delivery in diabetic pregnant women. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews [computer file]. 2000
Very tight versus tight control for diabetes in pregnancy. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews [computer file]. 2000
Effect of medical therapy on progressive nephropathy: influence of pregnancy, diabetes and hypertension. Journal of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. 2000
Selecting antihypertensive therapy in the pregnant woman with diabetes mellitus. Journal of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. 2000
Risk factors, pregnancy complications, and prevention of hypertensive disorders in women with pregravid diabetes mellitus. Journal of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. 2000
Prenatal diagnosis of macrosomia in pregnancy complicated by diabetes mellitus. Journal of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. 2000
Present and future perspectives on the use of free or encapsulated pancreatic islet cell transplantation as a treatment of pregnancy complicated by type 1 diabetes. Journal of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. 2000
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