Where does it come from?
Gestational diabetes occurs during pregnancy. Gestational diabetes means that you have high blood sugar levels while pregnant, but those levels were normal before you got pregnant. Essentially, your placenta makes hormones that can lead to a buildup of glucose in your blood. Your pancreas normally can make enough insulin to handle the excess glucose. If your pancreas can’t keep up, though, your blood sugar levels will rise too high. Don’t worry, though. If you have gestational diabetes, you can still have a healthy baby. You will want to talk to your doctor about simple things you can do to manage your blood sugar levels.
Diagnosing Gestational Diabetes
To test for this, you will usually drink a sugary drink with the goal of raising your blood sugar levels. A blood test is then taken to see how your body handled the extra sugar. If the results show that your blood sugar is especially high, you may need more tests. If your results are normal but you have risk factors for gestational diabetes, your doctor should monitor and check for gestational diabetes again later.
Symptoms
Many women with gestational diabetes usually don’t show symptoms; and often they discover they have it during normal pregnancy screening tests. If the gestational diabetes is out of control , you may notice:
- feeling thirsty
- feeling hungry or eating more
- a need to urinate more often
Treatment
To treat your gestational diabetes, your doctor will ask you to:
- test your blood sugar multiple times a day
- eat a healthy diet
- exercise daily
Your physician will track your symptoms over your pregnancy and will update you if you need to take further action to manage your gestational diabetes. If you have questions, give us a call at (214) 544-6600 today to learn more.
