While technological and medical advancements have greatly reduced pregnancy-related complications, they still occur. In fact, according to statistics, nearly 10 million women worldwide suffer from complications during pregnancy each year—one of the most common complications being Gestational diabetes.
What is Gestational Diabetes?
Gestational diabetes is a term that is used when perfectly healthy women suffer from high blood glucose levels only during their pregnancy—meaning they did not have any form of diabetes prior to their pregnancy and will not suffer from the disease after giving birth. While pregnant women will return to their normal healthy state after birth, their children all the other hand will deal with all of the consequences of making too much insulin. One of the more common side effects is giving birth to a macrosomia baby—those that weight more than the average 8.8 pounds. This alone can cause several problems. Aside from macrosomia babies being more prone to contracting diabetes and becoming obese when they get older, babies are also at risk of shoulder dystocia during birth, which can cause paralysis. Mothers are also in risk of having c-section births and hemorrhaging due to the baby's large size. Gestational diabetes occurs in about 7 percent of pregnant women. And as evident by recent headlines suggesting diabetes is slowly become a global epidemic, the possibility of contracting gestational diabetes during pregnancy shouldn't be taken lightly.
Who is at more Risk of Contracting Gestational Diabetes?
Gestational Diabetes can easily occur an any pregnant woman who doesn't monitor her pregnancy weight gain and eats all the wrong foods, but those who are more vulnerable to contracting the disease include the following: Are older than 25 when you are pregnant
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Those who are older than 30
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Those who suffer from high blood pressure
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Those who have a family history of diabetes
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Those who are overweight before pregnancy
How to Prevent Gestational Diabetes?
In short, maintaining a healthy diet and exercising throughout your pregnancy is all you really need to do to prevent gestational diabetes. In fact, according to experts, women who include foods rich in fiber in their diet such as whole grain breads, brown rice, spinach, broccoli, and berries, lean protein and those who consume tons of water and avoid sugary drinks like soda altogether are less likely to contract gestational diabetes. For a detailed list of meal plans, click here.
In addition, those that exercise at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week are also more unlikely to contract the disease. Not sure where to start? The American Pregnancy Association provides a list of the top exercises recommended for pregnant women.
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Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031 @gmail.com.
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