If I have gestational diabetes, will my baby be affected?
Babies born to mothers who have gestational diabetes tend to be too big, and if you control the blood sugar levels that doesn't generally happen. But the problem with babies that are too big is that they tend to get stuck when they come out, so they end up having problems with their shoulders, rates of ceasarean sections are higher, and so there's some issues related to the size of the baby. So we want to control the blood sugar levels to keep the baby a normal size so that birth is easier. After delivery, babies of mom's who have had gestational diabetes can have low blood sugar levels and high bilirubin levels, but all of that tends to be monitored in the hospital for a day or two and then the babies are fine. I think another important point though is that babies who are big at birth and babies who are too little at birth are at increased risk themselves for getting diabetes in the future. So we think that there might be hyperstimulation of the pancreas during pregnancy, we're not quite sure. But I think it's a good idea to treat the gestational diabetes and then if that 's done the baby's going to be just fine and there should be no long term problems with the baby.
