Contents:
- Medical Video: Gestational Diabetes: Managing Risk During and After Pregnancy Video - Brigham and Women’s Hospital
- What happens after giving birth if I have had gestational diabetes?
- Tips to overcome gestational diabetes after childbirth
- 1. Check your blood sugar levels regularly
- 2. Lower your pregnant weight
- 3. Eat healthy food and do regular exercise
- 4. Keep breastfeeding your baby
Medical Video: Gestational Diabetes: Managing Risk During and After Pregnancy Video - Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Pregnant women are prone to complications during pregnancy. One of them is gestational diabetes, where pregnant women suffer from diabetes while pregnant, whereas before the mother did not have diabetes. This happens because the body of the mother experiences many changes during pregnancy, including hormonal changes. Then, after giving birth will gestational diabetes be cured? How do you deal with gestational diabetes after giving birth?
What happens after giving birth if I have had gestational diabetes?
You will definitely feel relieved to learn that most pregnant women who have gestational diabetes can recover by themselves after giving birth. Even so, you still need to be aware of gestational diabetes even after giving birth. In the weeks or early months after you give birth, you need to check your condition to the doctor. You also need to control your blood sugar levels after giving birth.
READ ALSO: Impact of Gestational Diabetes on Mother and Fetus
Because if you cannot control your blood sugar levels properly, gestational diabetes can develop into another disease, such as type 2 diabetes. After you have had gestational diabetes, your risk of developing type 2 diabetes will increase. To avoid this, you must always control your blood sugar levels.
In addition, women with gestational diabetes who fail to control their weight after giving birth will have a greater risk of developing gestational diabetes again in subsequent pregnancies, according to a study in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2010.
Mothers who have gestational diabetes also have a higher risk of developing postpartum depression than mothers who do not have gestational diabetes. After giving birth, you can experience stress from being a new mother. Depression usually peak at 3-4 months after giving birth. If you continue to experience problems sleeping, feeling very tired, losing appetite, anxiety, or thoughts that harm yourself and your baby, you should immediately consult your doctor. Postpartum depression can be treated.
Tips to overcome gestational diabetes after childbirth
After you give birth, you may feel tired and stressed from lack of sleep since becoming a new mother. Tired and stress can affect your appetite and blood sugar levels. In fact, if you have gestational diabetes while pregnant, you still have to control blood sugar levels even after giving birth. The following are ways you can do to treat gestational diabetes after childbirth.
READ ALSO: 5 Ways to Overcome Postpartum Depression After Childbirth
1. Check your blood sugar levels regularly
The American Diabetes Association recommends that all pregnant women with gestational diabetes do a blood sugar test 6 weeks after giving birth and continue at least every 3 years. If your blood sugar level is disrupted after you have gestational diabetes you may need to check your blood sugar levels to a doctor every year. Examination of blood sugar levels after you give birth for those of you who have gestational diabetes is very important. This is also done to prevent the development of diabetes in the future.
2. Lower your pregnant weight
Your risk of developing diabetes after you have gestational diabetes during pregnancy will be higher if you have excess weight. In addition, if you are obese, your risk of experiencing other diseases is also higher, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and other health risks. For that you need to lose your pregnant weight until your weight is included in the normal range. However, you must lose your weight in a good way after giving birth because you still have to breastfeed your baby.
3. Eat healthy food and do regular exercise
This is done to keep your blood sugar levels in the normal range. Also, to maintain a healthy weight. Try to always consume healthy foods and fiber every day. You can get it from vegetables, fruits, and seeds. And, do exercise regularly for at least 30 minutes every day. In addition, you also need to get enough sleep. If you have trouble getting enough sleep because of the hassle of taking care of your baby, you should also sleep when your baby sleeps.
4. Keep breastfeeding your baby
Breastfeeding is good for mothers with gestational diabetes, but breastfeeding can also make your blood sugar levels more difficult to control. However, don't worry because this can be overcome. You can more often eat snacks before or during breastfeeding and drink lots of water to prevent blood sugar levels from being low due to breastfeeding. You need to know that breastfeeding can also help you lose weight after pregnancy.
READ ALSO: Lactation Amenorrhea, Method of Preventing Pregnancy with Breastfeeding
