Contents:
- Medical Video: Diabetes and Pregnancy Risks
- Differences in gestational diabetes with pregnant women in diabetic conditions
- An abnormality in a baby that may be experienced due to a condition of diabetes during pregnancy
- Temporary disturbance
- More serious disorders
- What should I do if I am pregnant with diabetes?
Medical Video: Diabetes and Pregnancy Risks
High blood sugar levels aka hyperglycemia is a condition that can cause various health problems. This will be more dangerous if it occurs in pregnant women with a history of diabetes and have uncontrolled blood sugar levels. In addition to causing gestational diabetes and its various complications, the health effects of mothers who have diabetes during pregnancy can be experienced by babies from birth to adulthood.
Differences in gestational diabetes with pregnant women in diabetic conditions
Diabetes during pregnancy occurs when blood sugar levels tend to be high since the beginning of pregnancy, or can occur during the first trimester. This condition is experienced by someone with a history of diabetes. While gestational diabetes is experienced by someone who does not have a history of diabetes before, but has increased blood sugar levels during pregnancy after going through the first trimester of pregnancy. After giving birth, the blood sugar levels of gestational diabetics will return to normal.
An abnormality in a baby that may be experienced due to a condition of diabetes during pregnancy
The condition of hyperglycemia in pregnant women with diabetes and gestational diabetes is at risk of causing complications or disorders, some of which are temporary, but some are permanent and will last until the baby reaches adulthood.
Temporary disturbance
- Makrosomia - conditions that cause the baby's body to enlarge from its normal size. This of course will complicate labor and can cause injury to the baby when removed from the mother's womb.
- Hypoglycemia - the condition of blood sugar levels is too low, this needs to be addressed immediately with breastfeeding when after birth. If breastfeeding cannot be given, the baby needs glucose intake directly into the bloodstream.
- Jaundice - physical condition characterized by changes in the color of the skin and eyes of the baby to become yellowish This condition is not harmful to the baby if treated immediately.
- Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) - are various symptoms that cause breathing disorders. This can be handled by giving oxygen or other breathing assistance.
- Low levels of blood calcium and magnesium - this condition causes cramps in the muscles of the baby's hands and feet which can cause pain. Supplementation of calcium and magnesium is needed to overcome the symptoms of this disorder.
More serious disorders
Children born to mothers who have diabetes tend to experience abnormalities due to hyperglycemia conditions that occur in the first trimester of pregnancy, when the fetus experiences various physical developments. These disorders include:
- Tachypnea - is a disorder that occurs in the respiratory system which causes various disorders resulting from slowing down of lung development in infants. The condition of the imperfect respiratory system is often characterized by lack of oxygen, symptoms of pneumonia, and hypertension in the lungs. This can also cause various other disorders such as hypoglycemia, hypothermia, polycythemia, and brain disorders.
- Iron deficiency - experienced by 65% of babies born to pregnant women with diabetes. If not treated immediately, it can result in disruption of the nervous system development in the baby.
- Heart abnormalities - enlargement of the heart muscle can cause various working disorders of the heart, including difficulty in pumping blood (cardiomyopathy) and enlargement of the heart due to blood pressure in the heart (cardiomegaly). Cardiomyopathy is caused by a weakening of the heart's function to pump blood throughout the body. As a result, blood pressure in the heart increases and causes cardiomegaly and can also cause heart failure. Even though this condition has been treated, heart abnormalities at birth can cause congenital heart defects that attack the ventricles and heart arteries.
- Congenital central nervous system abnormalities - this condition is 16 times more risky for babies born to pregnant women with diabetes. The consequences are various disorders of brain function and spinal cord. Central nervous system disorders include:brain and cranial bone development defects (anencephaly), spinal defects characterized by spinal nerve lumps (spina bifida), coccyx developmental defects (caudal dysplasia)
- Abnormalities in the circulatory system - various abnormalities caused by the condition of excess red blood cells (polycythemia) which is triggered by hypoxic conditions in infants. As a result, the blood becomes thicker so that the risk of causing strokes, seizures, damage to the intestinal tract, and thrombosis in kidney blood vessels. This condition also causes increased levels of bilirubin in the blood (hyperbilirubinemia) and results in excessive workload on the liver.
What should I do if I am pregnant with diabetes?
Some conditions of congenital defects in babies born to pregnant women with diabetes can endanger the lives of babies, and will be difficult to deal with. Prevention can be done, by way of planning a pregnancy appropriately for prospective mothers with diabetes. This is very important to reduce the risk of congenital disorders and disorders. The condition of macrosomnia is the most easily recognized condition first. However, whatever the size of the baby's body at birth, the examination and care of the baby remains intensively needed to recognize functional disorders and birth defects.
Some laboratory tests needed by babies after birth from diabetic mothers are:
- Blood glucose level - early detection of blood sugar levels is done when the baby is two hours old.
- Examination of iron levels, iron binding capacity and lost iron levels.
- Electrolyte level examination; potassium, calcium, phosphate and magnesium.
- Early detection hyperbilirubinemia and conditions polycythemia in infants.
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