Diabetes and Pregnancy

HCS/245

Instructor

September 10, 2012

Abstract

Being pregnant is a very exciting time in a women’s life. The thoughts of bring a new life into the world can be exciting and scary at the same time. A woman can have diabetes before becoming pregnant and they can also develop diabetes during pregnancy, this called Gestational diabetes. In the past, women who were known to have diabetes were discouraged about becoming pregnant due to all the health problems for the mother and the health problems that a baby could develop before being born (WebMD, page 1). A few of the health problems for the mother would be: miscarriage, premature delivery, low blood glucose at delivery, eye problems, worsening kidney problems, and preeclampsia just to name a few. The health problems for the baby would be birth defects, prolonged jaundice, respiratory distress syndrome, and being born prematurely and all the problems that go along with being premature. Another common problem with babies of pregnant women with diabetes is that they have very large babies. This happens because the babies receive too much sugar from the mother and it turns to fat which in turn increases the size of the baby. This can make the baby to large to be delivered naturally and a cesarean delivery would then be necessary. As stated in WebMD, “once delivered, the baby could develop dangerously low blood sugar right after delivery because of high levels of insulin and not getting all the extra sugar from the mother”( page 1). Diabetes: Pregnancy Development
Diabetes is a condition in which the body cannot manufacture the use of carbohydrates to make energy in the body; or the body doesn’t make enough insulin in the pancreas. Some of the common problems associated with diabetes are high blood pressure, kidney disease, nerve damage,