Hello i’m dr. candace mcgregor with christy clinic ob/gyn and if you’re watching this video it probably means you’ve just been diagnosed with gestational diabetes today we’re going to take a few minutes to talk about what gestational diabetes is why it’s important to control it and what steps we’re going to be asking you to take to help us gestational diabetes is
A medical condition where a pregnant woman has too much sugar in her blood to understand what goes wrong in gestational diabetes we first have to understand what’s supposed to happen our bodies eat food and through digestion the sugar in our food ends up in our blood we call that sugar glucose our pancreas which is an organ behind our stomach produces insulin that
Insulin helps open up doors called receptors in our cells the open receptors allow sugar or that glucose to go from the blood into ourselves where sugar can then be used to make our energy for the day in gestational diabetes this process just doesn’t work right we think the problem starts in that placenta the placenta is the part of the pregnancy that looks kind
Of like liver it supplies the growing baby with oxygen and nutrition to grow the placenta makes a hormone that blocks the insulin receptor this means that the sugar has a harder time getting out of the blood and into the cell this makes our blood have too much glucose in it so now that we know what gestational diabetes is and how it happens let’s talk about why it
Is important to control this condition the high levels of sugar in the blood can cause problems with the baby’s growth and development diabetes and pregnancy can cause the baby to be very large it can also cause the baby to have low blood sugar after birth which in severe cases can even cause your baby to have a seizure diabetes can also cause the baby to develop
Jaundice which is a temporary orange or even yellowing of the baby’s skin that when not treated can cause brain damage and diabetes can cause a higher chance of the birth causing an injury to the baby in this photo the smaller baby is a normally sized seven pound newborn the larger baby is only one day old and weighs in at an amazing 19 pounds the size of this baby
Was caused by high blood sugars in a woman with uncontrolled diabetes and pregnancy well let’s not forget that the diabetes can affect the mother to mothers with gestational diabetes are also at increased risk for high blood pressure and having to have a cesarean birth instead of a more natural vaginal birth having gestational diabetes can also be a warning that a
Woman has a higher chance of getting regular diabetes later in life up to fifty percent of women with gestational diabetes will get regular diabetes when they get older to prevent diabetes later in life you should continue your healthy diet even after your pregnancy is over and maintain a recommended weight by exercising routinely now let’s talk about our final topic
For today what are we going to do to help fight against high blood sugars as part of your introduction to gestational diabetes we are going to arrange for you to meet the christie clinic dietitian she is an amazing resource for information about how to make small changes in your diet that are really powerful at reducing your blood sugar we feel that your visit with
A dietitian jane will be super helpful for you in your quest to be gestational diabetes also your doctor is going to want you to test your blood sugar four times per day the timing of these tests is very important you should check your blood sugar in the morning before you eat or drink anything this is called your fasting blood sugar we want your fasting blood sugar
To be less than 95 then you are going to test your blood sugar two hours after each meal so this means two hours after breakfast lunch and dinner we call these values postprandial we want your postprandial values to be less than 100 20 this example demonstrates three abnormal values indicated by these pink squiggly lines to test your blood sugar you will be taught
To prick your finger and placing small drop of blood onto a test strip in your meter our nurses will show you exactly how to do this if the changes you make in your diet aren’t able to keep your blood sugar under these goals we will recommend medication there are three possible medications that can be safely used in pregnancy the first is called glider i glyburide
Is a pill you will be asked to take twice a day it helps to lower the sugar in your blood by increasing the release of insulin from your pancreas the second medication that can be used to treat gestational diabetes is called metformin metformin makes the insulin more powerful on yourselves and helps the sugar get from the blood and into the cells metformin is a
Fill you may be asked to take twice a day the third medication that can be used to treat gestational diabetes is insulin insulin is different than the pills we have just talked about it comes in liquid form that is given by injection if you need insulin injections don’t worry our nurses will teach you everything you need to know so that you can give yourself the
Shot depending on your circumstances your provider may recommend testing of the baby during the later months of your pregnancy the testing will all be non-invasive and totally painless this may include extra ultrasounds to check the growth of your baby it may also include something called non-stress test during non stress tests we place a monitor on your belly
That can detect the baby’s heart rate and record it over 15 to 20 minutes looking at the results of this monitoring can help your provider reassure you that your baby is faith a final way we may recommend testing your baby is with a special ultrasound called abpp be few p stands for biophysical profile during a ppp ultrasound we will watch your baby perform specific
Tasks such as moody and practice freely each task your baby accomplishes scores two points and we are looking for a score of eight a good score tells us that your baby is doing them working as a team we can help you control your blood sugar levels and help reduce the impact gestational diabetes has on you and your growing baby we will be leading the view frequently
To offer support and answer any questions you might have you
Transcribed from video
Diabetes in pregnancy By christieclinic