For a mother to remain healthy during pregnancy and have a successful birth a nutritionally balanced diet is important. However for a woman who has gestational diabetes then diet is often the only thing to keep blood sugar levels normal before having to resort to insulin injections. With a gestational diabetes diet a woman should pay specific attention to the total calories eaten each day and avoid foods that cause blood sugar levels of increase while focusing on foods that help to maintain normal blood sugar levels. To plan for specific gestational diabetes diet needs a woman should talk with a dietitian.

How To Eat During Pregnancy

A proper gestational diabetes diet will help the mother and fetus meet their nutritional needs, which for women with diabetes this means a diet that will keep the blood sugars as normal as possible. During the second and third trimesters of pregnancy you will need to increase the daily calorie intake by 300 calories. This means that from fourteen weeks up until delivery it is a good idea for women to take in 2100 calories a day.

During pregnancy vitamins and minerals are also required in larger amounts. To help with this it is a good idea to increase the intake of diary products that are low in fat, whole grain cereals and breads, fruits and vegetables. Prenatal vitamins are often recommended however they do not replace a good gestational diabetes diet. Prenatal vitamins should be taken at night before bed or in the morning when the stomach is empty so that the iron will be absorbed better.

Foods To Avoid During Pregnancy

To keep blood sugars in a normal range during pregnancy a woman should avoid foods containing high amounts of sugar. This includes foods such as pies, cakes, cookies, ice cream, candy, soft drinks, commercially fruited yogurt, jams and jelly. With a gestational diabetes diet a woman should only drink fruit juices with a meal and only six ounces. A large amount of sugar is found in fruit juices even those that claim no sugar is added. The best choice is tomato juice since it contains the lowest amount of sugars.

Foods To Eat During Pregnancy

Vegetables, cereal, grains, beans, peas and other starchy foods are good for a gestational diabetes diet since they are complex carbohydrates. These types of foods added to a diet will help decrease the amount of insulin required by your body to help keep the blood sugar levels in a normal range. Whole grain cereals and breads, fruits, vegetables and legumes are good because they are high in dietary fiber. These foods are important to have in a diet since they help the digestive process. While fats are needed to help absorb vitamins your diet should also be low in fat.

Share This

Expectant mothers who have gestational diabetes may experience increased thirst, excessive urination and other similar symptoms to diabetes mellitus, and the patient’s blood sugar should be tested frequently by the prenatal medical team. High levels of insulin getting to the fetus can cause large babies but has not been associated with birth defects.

Most defects manifest within the first trimester while the typical onset of gestational diabetes occurs during the second trimester. A woman may considered being at risk for gestational diabetes if they have had it during a previous pregnancy, the mother’s age, a family history of type 2 diabetes mellitus or a previous pregnancy that result in an infant with a birth weight over nine pounds. In a majority of cases women with gestational diabetes develop type 2 diabetes later in life, even if it seemed to have disappeared after giving birth.

Testing Needed For Accurate Diagnosis

A woman who is at risk for developing gestational diabetes should be tested between weeks 24 and 28, even earlier if there are more than one or two risk factors present and especially if they have experienced it during a previous pregnancy. There are a couple of glucose challenges physicians can use to determine if this form of diabetes might exist, before extensive testing is used for positive diagnosis.

There are a few risks associated with gestational diabetes for the infant including macrosomia, an increased baby weight, as well as jaundice, respiratory distress syndrome, low calcium and levels of magnesium as well as the increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. For the mother, the risks include the potential to develop type 2 diabetes later as well as high blood pressure.

If a physician determines the presence of gestational diabetes treatment will depend on the health of the mother, along with age, weight and the mother’s preference to treatment. It could consist of diet and exercise along with daily monitoring of blood sugar levels and in severe cases, insulin injections. Maintaining a set level of blood sugar as the aim of any treatment regimen.

Share This

Safety And Monitoring

However, having this form of diabetes and a pregnancy that continues normally is entirely possible. If a woman appears to be at risk, her doctor will likely conduct a test from between 24-28 weeks. If the test is positive, exercising and monitoring both your diet and your blood sugar levels should be adequate in most cases.

Your health care provider will tell you exactly what to do. In some cases insulin injections may be necessary, but the baby should be fine. After birth, gestational diabetes mellitus generally disappears within about two months. However, this may be a warning sign of future diabetes and will need to be tracked by your health care provider.

If you are considering another pregnancy and had diabetes of this type in the past, always be sure to consult with your physician. You should have your blood glucose levels tested a few months before making an attempt to get pregnant again.

Preeclampsia And Diabetes

For those with gestational diabetes or pre-existing diabetes, a healthy pregnancy and safe delivery are, again, generally the norm. Unfortunately, diabetes does increase the risk of the condition known as preeclampsia that can affect pregnant women. First: What is preeclampsia?

Preeclampsia is a hypertensive condition (high blood pressure) experienced by between five to eight percent of pregnant women that can put stress on the kidneys and liver. It can also lead to edema of the lungs, increase the risk of blood clots and cause seizures during the birth as well.

Preeclampsia can even kill, and for those with gestational diabetes there is an approximately 15% increase in the risk factor for this condition. For those with pre-existing diabetes, that risk factor goes up to 30%, and the condition is most common in a first-time pregnancy. Your health care provider will no doubt be monitoring for such things.

Although diabetes and pregnancy can be scary, chances are that the expecting mother can look forward to a happy and normal delivery. Just be cautious and prudent and work closely together with your physician to keep on top of things, and you’ll be just fine.

Share This

A woman who is in her twenty-fourth to twenty-eighth week of pregnancy can develop a form of diabetes called gestational diabetes, even if she has no history of the disease. 135,000 cases of gestational diabetes are documented in the United States each year. Despite the fact that it is a severe situation, women detected with gestational diabetes can give birth to infants that are healthy. The risks of gestational diabetes are reduced with appropriate medical care, a nutritious diet, and weight gain that is neither too slow nor too rapid.

To eliminate the possibility that a woman has gestational diabetes, her physician will perform one of two tests. Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (One Step): after a pregnant woman has not eaten anything for a period of four to eight hours, her blood glucose level is tested. Then she will drink a concoction that is extremely high in sugar content and be tested again in approximately two hours. Two Step: this test requires the pregnant woman to drink the above mentioned concoction first, without the fasting period. Then after one hour, her blood glucose level is taken. A non-diabetic woman will have a normal reading at this time. A woman who has a high level of blood glucose will be re-tested by means of the Oral Glucose Tolerance Test to be certain that she has gestational diabetes.

No one knows why gestational diabetes happens, but some speculations are that the fetus makes hormones that prevent the mother from making adequate amounts of insulin to maintain blood sugar levels. A pregnant woman’s body is undergoing change and can require up to three times the normal amount of insulin needed to control her blood sugar levels. Macrosomia can occur in the infant if the surplus of sugar is passed to them through the placenta.

Additional risks for the mother-to-be and her child are: A caesarian section may be needed to prevent endangering a macrosomic infant. Low blood glucose levels may exist in the baby. Jaundice may be present in the baby. There may be low levels of minerals in the baby’s blood. The baby may have trouble with breathing when born. Children born under these circumstances run higher risks of being overweight. Developing type 2 diabetes is more common in the mothers and children. The risk of gestational diabetes in future pregnancies is higher.

Finding and treating gestational diabetes is critical to prevent more serious risks. Implementing a healthy diet and a moderate exercise plan are also ways to prevent more serious risks from developing. Sensible exercise aids in keeping mother and fetus healthy by preventing weight gain from being too rapid and too excessive, which can lead to problems for the mother and fetus, both presently and in the future. Insulin needs to be taken as specified by the physician. Also prevent further risks by keeping a close eye on blood sugar levels.

After delivery, gestational diabetes goes away on its own. The placenta is no longer producing hormones that affected the mother’s ability to produce insulin. It is highly recommended to obtain another glucose test six weeks after giving birth to ensure that Type 1 or type 2 diabetes was not incorrectly diagnosed as gestational diabetes. Having another test performed will also assess the risk of developing type 2 diabetes down the road.

The risk of having type 2 diabetes in women, who have had gestational diabetes, and their children, can be lessened by making changes in their eating and exercising habits. Obesity is the leading cause of type 2 diabetes, but eating right and exercising and losing the excess weight can make all the difference.

About the Author:

Julia Hanf author of the book How To Play the diabetes diet Game and Win Through a real life crisis Julia figured out how to live diabetes free. Visit http://www.yourdiabetescure.com and learn more about your solution for diabetes.

Share This

Why does gestational diabetes occur? The placenta produces a hormone that goes against the affect of insulin on blood sugar. Women who have a history of diabetes in the family are also more sensitive to this hormone. Mothers who have experienced gestational diabetes should research and be aware of what the symptoms of Type 1 or type 2 diabetes are and be aware of the steps to take to avoid or delay this disease.

Studies show that it is possible to reduce the risks by watching their diet and exercise. In fact, women who went on to control their weight, exercise, and their diet had a 58 percent decrease in their risk for developing diabetes.

Exercise is important, if you are already exercising when you become pregnant, it is important you remain active to the limits of your body. Low impact exercising, yoga, or water aerobics are choices for those women who are not on a regular exercise program.

If you have questions about gestational diabetes, or have been diagnosed with it, talk to your doctor and ask questions. Information abounds on the Internet about diabetes, prevention of diabetes, treating the disease, and learning how to control it.

Share This

Share This

In order to make the transition from your old diet to a gestational diabetes diet, the dietitian will consider your food preferences. That way you won’t be too much affected by the change. The first thing a dietician will take in account is how many calories you consume per day. Once she has obtained an average number, she can conceive a plan with alternatives.
Learn how to calculate the number of calories that each portion of food has, as well as the amount of fat, protein and carbohydrates contained inside. That way, if you feel tempted by something like a donut, you can rationally evaluate how harmful it be for you and your baby.
The dietitian will also consider a correct amount of minerals and vitamins for your body. That’s why it is very important to eat a variety of foods which complement with each other. And don’t be disordered with your gestational diabetes diet. You must eat every meal, even the snacks. Do not skip them! It is extremely important for you to maintain a balanced level of sugar.
As you can see, a gestational diabetes diet isn’t something that you can prepare by yourself and it an issue that shouldn’t be dismissed by a pregnant woman diagnosed with diabetes. You need a lot of inner strength to follow it perfectly. Remember that if you don’t, you and your baby face a higher risk of complications at birth. No mother wishes to live this scenario.

Share This

How Do You Treat Gestational Pregnancy?
The best tool to fight diabetes is still the diet. With the right diabetes diet while pregnant, the disease will not create too much disturbance. However, the diabetes diet while pregnant should be very carefully worked out so that both the would-be-mother and her baby are no deprived of any major nutrients. A dietician’s help may be enlisted to work out the best diabetes diet while pregnant so as to include not only the required nutrients but also avoid to a large extent the sugar build up in the blood.
Your doctor will tell you what symptoms to watch for. You should also learn to watch the levels of sugar carefully so as to use insulin whenever necessary. The insulin will need to be injected from time and hence you will also know how to inject yourself. There are homemade kits that can be used safely to measure the glucose in the blood. You should know how and where to puncture for taking the drop of blood for the kit. You should be careful that you do not cause any infection by taking this test.
This along with the right diabetes diet while pregnant will ensure that you keep the diabetes in check throughout the time of pregnancy. You should have your doctor within your reach all the time so as to avoid any type of complications.

Share This

Share This