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Diabetes and Pregnancy

You Can Still Have a Healthy Baby

By Laura Cone

Looking back, Deborah Newton of Dallas, Texas, suspects she may have had diabetes when she was pregnant with her first child, now 17. But her physician did not diagnose her with diabetes until she was 30 years old and pregnant with her second child.

"I did not know I had diabetes until the sixth month," says Newton, who has Type I diabetes. "I found out through a blood test. They take your blood every month. It showed up."

According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), some women learn they have Type I or Type II diabetes while they are pregnant. However, according to the ADA, about 4 percent of all pregnant women suffer from gestational diabetes. With gestational diabetes, women experience high blood-sugar levels during pregnancy. The condition usually goes away after pregnancy.

Newton, however, continues to live with diabetes today. "I had to go into the hospital for three days, and they monitored everything and gave me an educational course about what I needed to do," she says. "I had to change my diet and I had to go on insulin while I was pregnant."

Newton immediately made changes to her diet, such as concentrating on protein, fruits and vegetables as opposed to refined foods. "I was concerned about the baby," she says. "You can have a premature baby [when you are diabetic], which I did with my first. She was seven and a half weeks early. They think I had diabetes then, too."

About two years after the birth of her second child, Newton started experiencing serious Type I diabetes symptoms and became insulin dependent. "It was dramatic," she says. "I had blurred vision. I thought I needed glasses. They took me in and said, 'Have you ever had any problem with diabetes?' I said, 'Yes. When I was pregnant.'"

Although gestational diabetes often goes away after pregnancy, chances are two in three that the problem will return in future pregnancies. And infants born to women with diabetes are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes as adults, experts say.

Both Newton's daughters have diabetes, but the three women support one another. "Although it is a disease, it is a choice, too, how you monitor it," Newton says. "We monitor it as much as we can."

With more knowledge and scientific advances, most women with diabetes can give birth to a healthy infant. Some women with diabetes have very large babies, putting them at risk for a Cesarean section.

In turn, having a surgical birth puts the baby at greater risk for experiencing jaundice or breathing problems. The reason many infants become so large is because women with diabetes have too much sugar in their blood, which crosses the placenta to the baby.

Despite the challenges of giving birth with diabetes, there are many steps women can take to ensure a healthier pregnancy and child.

Want to see more?

• Gestational Diabetes and You: The Facts About this Misunderstood Condition
• Battle of the Baby Bulge: Returning to Your Pre-pregnancy Weight
• Gestational Diabetes: It's Not the End of the World
• Talk about it!

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