Doctors test the blood glucose levels of pregnant women to see if they have developed gestational diabetes. If you have gestational diabetes and don't get the proper treatment, it can cause problems for your baby, including difficulty breathing, hypoglycemia at birth and a difficult delivery due to the baby's large size.
Pregnancy Glucose Tests
The first pregnancy glucose test administered is called a glucose challenge screening, which involves drinking a very sweet beverage and then getting your blood glucose level checked one hour later to see how well your body handled the infusion of glucose. If your body does not handle the sugar well, your doctor will then do a longer test called a glucose tolerance test, where you drink more of the sweet beverage and have your blood tested every hour for three hours, to determine whether you have gestational diabetes.
Pre-Test Instructions
Before the glucose challenge screening, you can eat normally, so you may eat bread if you like. However, before the glucose tolerance test, you have to fast for eight to 14 hours. All you can have is a few sips of water during this time, so most women schedule the test early in the morning.
Results
Normal results for the glucose tolerance test are less than 95 mg per dL after fasting, less than 180 mg per dL one hour after drinking the beverage containing 100 g of glucose, less than 155 mg per dL after two hours and less than 140 mg per dL after three hours. If your levels are higher than this for at least two out of the four blood draws, you have gestational diabetes.
Considerations
If you are diagnosed with gestational diabetes, you will have to follow a special diet and regularly test your own blood sugar levels to make sure the diet is working. Having gestational diabetes also means you are at higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes, although for most women the diabetes goes away after the birth of their baby.
