Gestational Diabetes

When you experience hyperglycemia (high blood glucose levels) while pregnant, you develop gestational diabetes. Pregnancy-related diabetes commonly arises in the third trimester (between 24 and 28 weeks).

The main cause of gestational diabetes is due to high demand of insulin requirements two to three times more than usual in a woman body, it is due to hormonal changes (hormones produced by the placenta that resist insulin) in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy as well as the demands of the fetus’s growth, therefore the incapacity of a woman body to produce enough insulin to digest the sugar from the meals she ate will stay in her bloodstream and cause high blood sugar levels.

A study has shown that 3% to 5% of pregnant women are diagnosed with gestational diabetes, and have more chances to have  type 2 diabetes.