Gestational diabetes condition is a condition that is characterized by high levels of glucose in the blood. Many pregnant women are diagnosed with gestational diabetes each year. Many of these women have a family history of diabetes. However, some women practice diabetes prevention to boost their insulin tolerance.
Women who usually take the various preventive measures are those who understand this disease from their experience of other people. In other cases, some pregnant women will ask their doctor for help and learn how to prevent gestational diabetes during pregnancy.
What is Gestational Diabetes?
In gestational diabetes, the glucose level in your blood is too high. This is because your body can no longer properly absorb the amount of sugar you take in. The problem often arises after the 24th week.
The cause is unhealthy eating, in combination with changes in your hormones and hereditary factors. In particular, the unhealthy lifestyle is an important factor and you can do a lot about it yourself. I will give you a few tips later in this article.
What happens in your body when you take in sugars? Your body will produce insulin to ensure that the glucose from your blood can be absorbed into your cells as fuel. This is a normal process.
The Main Causes of Gestational Diabetes
Pregnancy involves the active participation of your placenta because it produces hormones that you and the developing baby keep in your womb. However, these hormones tend to make your cells resistant to insulin.
When you enter the second and third trimesters, more hormones are excreted than your pregnant body needs. Thus, this makes it difficult for insulin to help cells absorb glucose.
The pancreas tries to help by producing more insulin to counteract the cells’ insulin resistance. However, there is now an overproduction of insulin, which could not open the cells for glucose absorption.
Blood sugar goes up, insulin levels go up, but cells in the body continue to lack glucose additives because of their insulin resistance.
Who is Susceptible to Gestational Diabetes?
- Any woman 25 years of age or older, but some women are more at risk.
- Women with a family history of developing gestational diabetes who may have contracted the genetic deficiency.
- Women who were pregnant before and who developed gestational diabetes during the previous pregnancy. This generally applies to women whose babies weighed about 9 pounds during delivery or to women who have had an unexplained stillborn child.
- Pregnant women who are overweight before the start of pregnancy.
- For inexplicable reasons, statistics show that women belong to the following ethnic group: Hispanic, African, Asian, or Indian.
How Gestational Diabetes Can Affect You?
Generally gestational diabetes has no symptoms so you won’t know that you already effected by this gestational diabetes before your doctor diagnoses it. But gestational diabetes can still have an effect on you before detected.
When a women in pregnancy this gestational diabetes can be increase your risk of high blood pressure. Also it can be causes to put you more at risk for type 2 diabetes. If you have a larger baby, gestational diabetes can make your delivery difficulty.
Prevention
Although gestational diabetes is not always preventable, women can take a few steps to reduce their chances of developing the condition. Here are some of the most common preventive measures:
Getting Pregnant With a Healthy Weight
A woman who wants to get pregnant must make lifestyle choices that can help her in maintaining a healthy weight before becoming pregnant. A BMI greater than 25 increases the likelihood that a woman will develop gestational diabetes. However, changes in the diet reduced the risk.
Eating Well During Pregnancy
During pregnancy, cravings nausea, and food intolerance are behaviors that can interfere with a nutritious diet. Eating well can help prevent gestational diabetes and keep a woman gaining only a healthy weight each trimester.
Exercising
Exercise is an essential part of maintaining a healthy weight. Exercise can help prevent gestational diabetes before and during pregnancy. Exercise helps the body become more sensitive to the insulin produced by the pancreas, which regulates blood sugar.
It is a good idea to stay active before you get pregnant, even if it means simple long-term lifestyle changes.
Those who want to prevent gestational diabetes should try moderately intensive training for about 30 minutes for four to five days a week. A moderate to intensity exercises should make a person sweat.
Good cardio options include stationary cycling, swimming, hiking, and using an elliptical trainer.
However, pregnant women should talk to a doctor about a new exercise program and discuss the types of safety at each stage of pregnancy.
Participation in Routine Care Appointments
A pregnant woman should visit a gynecologist for routine check care and checkups. These visits, will allow the doctor to ask questions regarding the pregnancy and the new symptoms. You will also do a pelvic exam and use an ultrasound to examine the development of the fetus.
A doctor can identify part of the first signs of the gestational diabetes to advise on the ways of its prevention.
Between weeks 24 and 28, a pregnant woman will be tested for gestational diabetes. If the results of gestational diabetes are positive, the doctor will explain how to prevent other complications.
Avoid Fast, Liquid Sugars
Fast, liquid sugars include soft drinks, lemonade, fruit juices and sugar in coffee and tea. These sugars are absorbed into the blood very quickly, which leads to an excessively high blood glucose value.
Also do not take light fruit juices. Because fruit juice is made from fruit, it still contains fruit sugar.
Spread Carbohydrates
You don’t necessarily have to eat sugar-free. Ensure regularity in the carbohydrates and in the distribution of carbohydrates over the day. Very accurate calculations are not necessary.
It is especially important to pay attention to the amounts of carbohydrates. In the carbohydrate list on this page you will find the amount of carbohydrates for various products.
Final Thought
If you are thinking about preventing gestational diabetes, remember that this is important for your health. Some women with GD develop diabetes after birth, others do not. You don’t know what’s going to happen to you.
Take care of your health, but if you can’t do anything about it, be sure to follow your doctor’s instructions to get the best possible result for you and your baby.
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