DR. JUSTIN C.K. DAVIS, M.D.: Hi, my name is Dr. Justin Davis and today I'll be telling you about gestational diabetes. So gestational diabetes is when women, who haven't been diagnosed with diabetes before develop diabetes just when they're pregnant. This happens in about 4% of pregnancies in the United States, which comes out to about 135,000 cases a year. So, what exactly is diabetes? Well, that's when you can't use the sugar that's in your blood system properly and put it into the cells and create energy from it. In gestational diabetes, this usually happens because you're no longer using insulin, the hormone that allows you to do this properly. Unfortunately, if you don't have good prenatal screening exams, this can be very difficult to diagnose because often, there's no symptoms at all. If you do have symptoms, some of the more common symptoms may be excessive thirst or hunger, recurrent vaginal yeast infections, or frequent urination. It's very important to diagnose and treat this condition property because if not treated properly, it can lead to dangerous conditions involving the baby. One of these, the most common is called macrosomia; that's when the baby weighs almost 10 pounds or even more. This can be not only dangerous to the baby, but also to the mother who's trying to have an excessively large baby. Other problems that may arise from gestational diabetes are an association with early fetal demise that means when the baby dies while still in the womb. The baby may also be born with problems such as jaundice, when they're yellow, or they may become hypoglycemic that means the sugar becomes too low in their body once they're born if this problem isn't diagnosed and treated properly in pregnancy. So, what do we do to prevent this? Well, having a normal healthy diet in pregnancy as well as maintaining a healthy exercise regimen is always important. It's also important to make sure that you gain the appropriate amount of weight throughout your pregnancy. That means not too much and not too little. Because doctors recognize that this can be a problems that occurs during pregnancy, we have special screening exams that we do throughout stages in your pregnancy to look for signs of gestational diabetes. That's one more reason why it's very important to see your doctor regularly while you're pregnant and have all the proper screening exams. Finally, remember, gestational
diabetes always occurs in pregnancy and is usually temporary. That means once you're no longer pregnant, the problem goes away. Occasionally, it doesn't go away and it turns into regular diabetes, and that's another reason why careful, close medical followup is very important. If you have gestational diabetes, almost 75% of women will experience it in future pregnancies, one more reason to have close prenatal care while you're pregnant. The prognosis for those with gestational diabetes is excellent. Today, we have very effective ways to pick up the problem early and treat it adequately. But remember, women that have had gestational diabetes once have a 75% chance of having it in future pregnancies. So remember, there are many good reasons to have good prenatal care for the health of the woman and the baby. Gestational diabetes is just one more reason to make sure that you closely follow up with your physician while you're pregnant.
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