Gestational diabetes can develop during pregnancy. This means you have high blood sugar and need to take extra care of yourself and your baby, including eating a healthy diet and staying physically active.
It is usually diagnosed through a blood test between the 24th and 28th weeks of pregnancy. It usually resolves after delivery.
If you’ve been diagnosed with gestational diabetes, take our free test to find out if you’re also at risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Symptoms of gestational diabetes
Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that develops during pregnancy. It affects women who have not yet been diagnosed with another type of diabetes. This means you have high blood sugar and need to take special care of yourself and your baby. This includes eating a healthy diet and staying physically active.
What are the symptoms of gestational diabetes?
The signs and symptoms are:
- Frequent urination, especially at night
- Intense thirst
- Feeling more tired than usual
- Itching or candidiasis in the genital area
- Blurred vision
Because some symptoms of gestational diabetes are similar to those that pregnant women typically experience during pregnancy, such as increased fatigue or more frequent urination, most cases are diagnosed during a screening test for gestational diabetes called the oral glucose tolerance test, also known as the OGTT.
The OGTT is usually performed between the 24th and 28th weeks of pregnancy. If you have had gestational diabetes before, you will be offered an OGTT or home blood glucose monitoring early in your pregnancy. They will show you how to do it and provide you with a blood monitoring kit.
What causes gestational diabetes?
Many changes occur in the body during pregnancy. In addition to physical changes, the hormones your body produces can make it harder for insulin to work properly. This increases the risk of insulin resistance, and some women may not even be able to produce enough insulin.
As a result, glucose remains in the blood, leading to gestational diabetes.
What happens to the baby if you have gestational diabetes?
If you have gestational diabetes, most babies will still be born healthy, but it can lead to complications such as a high birth weight (which makes delivery more difficult and may mean you’ll need labor induction or a C-section).
After birth, your baby may develop low blood sugar or yellowing of the skin or the whites of the eyes (jaundice), which requires treatment. If you have gestational diabetes, you will be advised to have a blood glucose test about 6 to 13 weeks after giving birth and then once a year due to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.
