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How does gestational diabetes affect pregnancy and will it hurt my baby?
From NHICD
Gestational diabetes generally does not cause birth defects. For the most part, birth defects originate sometime during the first trimester (before the 13th week) of pregnancy.
One of the major problems a woman with gestational diabetes faces is a condition the baby may develop called “macrosomia.” The combination of high blood glucose levels from the mother and high insulin levels in the fetus results in large deposits of fat which causes the fetus to grow excessively large, a condition known as macrosomia. Occasionally, the baby grows too large to be delivered through the vagina and a cesarean delivery becomes necessary.
In addition to macrosomia, gestational diabetes increases the risk of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) in the baby immediately after delivery. This problem occurs if the mother's blood sugar levels have been consistently high causing the fetus to have a high level of insulin in its circulation.
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Well, I kind of put that test off a little longer than I intended to. I did it this morning, and it wasn't as bad as I thought. I went first thing in the morning, on an empty stomach. I brought a glass of ice with me, since everyone says it's better to drink cold. However, the lab tech poured it over ice for me. It was like drinking orange soda.
After I drank it, I had to wait an hour before he could take a blood sample. So, I went out to my car and cleaned it a bit while waiting. I started feeling a little bit funny in the tummy...you know that feeling when you eat too much candy? Like that. I went back and waited the last 20 minutes in the waiting room. He took the blood sample and that was that.
Now we wait... Hopefully, we'll have the results back in time for our appointment on August 16, 2002.
If I do have a high level of sugar in my blood, that means I will have to do another glucose tolerance test. With that test, I would have to drink a glucose drink with even more glucose in it and they would draw blood every hour for three hours.
I have a feeling that my results will be fine. I eat so much sugar and carbs that I'm sure that, if I had gestational diabetes, I would know by now. I can eat an entire box of Milk Duds followed by handfuls of Craisins, no problem!
