Gestational diabetes affects 1 in 5 women, and screening for this disease is not done until the 28th week, according to the results of a study published in the medical journal Diabetes Care. However, this pathology could be detected earlier during the pregnancy, around the 20th week. A solution to avoid its consequences on the health of the baby and the mother. Indeed, it can cause respiratory distress, neonatal hypoglycemia and a risk of developing Type 2 diabetes for the baby. And in the mother, this diabetes can cause difficult or premature delivery, preeclampsia with weight gain, edema, arterial hypertension and kidney complications.
Researchers at Cambridge University (UK) followed 4,069 pregnant women during their first pregnancy and measured their babies’ growth rates in utero.
Participants were divided according to a diagnosis of gestational diabetes after 28 weeks or not. We are talking about Gestational Diabetesin case of high level of sugar in the blood which appeared during pregnancy. It occurs in some women, usually during the 3rd trimester.
From the 20th week, the baby already has a decisive size
The findings of this study determined that 4.2% of pregnant women have Gestational Diabetes.
And that, if at 20 weeks of pregnancy, no difference is observed in the growth of babies of mothers with or without gestational diabetes, the diagnosis of this pathology is preceded by an exceptional growth of the fetus between the 20th and 28th week. . Consequently, the researchers suggest bringing forward the date of screening for this pathology.
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