Gestational diabetes: the risk increases with every pound

Larissa Melville completed her traineeship in the editorial team of . After studying biology at Ludwig Maximilians University and the Technical University of Munich, she first got to know digital media online at Focus and then decided to learn medical journalism from scratch.

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Mothers who gain weight in the years leading up to pregnancy are more likely to develop gestational diabetes later on. This also applies if your weight is in the healthy range.

This is the conclusion reached by Akilew Adane and his colleagues from the University of Queensland. For their study, they analyzed the data of more than 3000 women between the ages of 18 and 23 years. As part of the Women's Health Australia study over a period of nine years, they had provided information on their weight, physical activity, lifestyle, health problems and pregnancies. Gestational diabetes occurred in 4.4 percent of pregnancies.

Triple risk

The result: Compared to women whose weight remained stable, women who gained more than 2.5 percent of their body weight each year developed gestational diabetes three times as often.

But even a weight gain of 1.5 to 2.5 percent of the body weight per year is still critical. Women with such moderate weight gain doubled their probability of a derailed sugar metabolism during pregnancy.

For example, a woman weighing 60 kilograms and 166 centimeters tall with a normal body mass index doubles her risk of gestational diabetes if she weighs 1.14 kilograms (about two percent of her body weight) every year for the seven years leading up to pregnancy. increases.

Slim women are also at risk

"Surprisingly, even women who were underweight or in the normal BMI range were at increased risk of gestational diabetes if they gained weight - even if they stayed in the healthy weight class," says Adane.

Women and doctors should know that even in a healthy BMI range, weight gain of one to two kilograms per year poses a health risk. According to the scientists, a stable weight in this phase of life is the best strategy to prevent gestational diabetes.

The researchers do not yet have a precise explanation for the connection. “We suspect that women who gain weight steadily in early adulthood gradually develop insulin resistance,” says Adane. This is intensified again during pregnancy.

Danger to mother and child

Gestational diabetes occurs in around four percent of pregnant women. It is a special form of diabetes that first appears during pregnancy. Most of the time it is largely symptom-free and disappears on its own after delivery. However, dangerous complications for mother and child can also occur.

If the mother has gestational diabetes, the unborn child is often too big and too heavy. This can make it difficult to give birth naturally. The children remain immature despite their size, which can also affect lung function. Then the children may develop respiratory distress syndrome after birth. The risk of malformations and premature births is also higher.

But gestational diabetes can also be dangerous for the mother. The greatest danger comes from eclampsia. The blood pressure rises, more protein is excreted in the urine and the women store a lot of water. Some have potentially fatal seizures or kidney failure.

Gestational diabetes should therefore be detected and treated as early as possible. Therefore, blood sugar checks in the 24th and 28th week of pregnancy are an important routine check for pregnant women.

Sources:

Press release of the University of Queensland from April 5th, 2017: Even ‘healthy’ weight gain raises pregnancy diabetes risk

Akiles A. Adane et al .: Pre-pregnancy weight change and incidence of gestational diabetes mellitus: A finding from a prospective cohort study. Diabetes. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.diabres.2016.12.014

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