A Threat to Both Mom and Her Baby
Gestational diabetes is on the rise, and experts are worried
Action plan. Once diagnosed, a woman is generally put on a restricted-calorie diet, low in carbs, and instructed to get regular moderate exercise. If that fails to bring her blood sugar under control, she’ll be given insulin, too.
After delivery, experts now realize, the healthful diet and exercise regimens continue to be critical. In New York City, where 1 in 11 people now has diabetes, health officials have started sending educational materials to every woman who has been diagnosed, offering nutrition and exercise tips to help her—and her baby—fight post-delivery bulge. Recognizing that many of the women in its Bronx community may already have undiagnosed type 2 diabetes when they get pregnant, Montefiore Medical Center has started screening women within the first two months of pregnancy. The staff is also reaching out to family members of women diagnosed with the condition, on the assumption that they may have risk factors associated with the disease. "This is a window of opportunity when patients are very receptive," says Joel Zonszein, director of the clinical diabetes center at Montefiore.
Tom Boyer, a San Francisco-based consultant for many diabetes organizations, thinks aggressive management during pregnancy should be a national prevention strategy. "Gestational diabetes represents the lowest hanging fruit," he says. If we can’t forestall future problems in temporarily affected women and their children, he wonders, how can we expect to help the burgeoning group of people threatened by type 2 diabetes?
advertisement
