What is "gestational diabetes"?
Gestational diabetes is diabetes that happens during pregnancy. Gestational diabetes generally happens during the last third of pregnancy. The reason why it happens is that the placenta that grows around the baby makes hormones that make the mum insulin-resistant. If you think about it, it's a good thing, because what the mum's trying to do is give sugar to the baby because the baby needs to grow and develop. So, what the placenta does is to make sure mum makes plenty of sugar. In someone who's not at risk for gestational diabetes, someone who doesn't get it, their own pancreas makes enough insulin to keep the blood sugar levels normal. However, you could be somebody who's prone to get gestational diabetes, and the risk factors are very similar to those of somebody with type 2 diabetes (if you have a family history, if you're overweight); all of those risk factors make a woman less likely to be able to make enough insulin during her pregnancy. When that happens the blood sugar levels go up because of the insulin resistance caused by the placenta. A woman with gestational diabetes is treated just like anybody with diabetes; through diet and exercise. However, there's not a lot of diet and exercise you can often do in a pregnancy, so what happens is they end up going on insulin briefly until the end of their pregnancy to make sure their sugar levels are normal.
