Diabetes and pregnancy: What you need to know

When women discover they’re pregnant, it becomes both a joyous time and a cautious one: immersing themselves in baby books, women begin planning for their baby’s arrival and taking care of themselves by eating right, avoiding smoking and alcohol and exercising.

For diabetics, however, it’s the care months beforehand that’s also vital – for both mom and baby.

According to today’s article, the number of women with pre-existing diabetes giving birth has doubled since seven years ago. And the number of pregnant diabetic girls between 13 and 19 years old has also increased by five times from one in 1,000 pregnancies to 5.5.

Considered a high-risk pregnancy, pre-existing diabetes, if not controlled, can spiral into dangerous health consequences, including miscarriage, stillbirth and birth defects.

So if you have diabetes and want to get pregnant, what can you do?

In the article, a pregnancy and diabetes expert emphasizes the need for diabetic women to plan their pregnancies. They should also see a doctor three months (at least!) before they plan on getting pregnant. That’s because once a woman is pregnant the baby’s heart is already developed, making it too late to intervene.

In addition, control your blood sugar with a pump or diet and exercise, according to the article. For women who are overweight, it’s recommended they lose weight prior to pregnancy.

For more information, consult these resources:

Health Central follows one diabetic woman’s journey through pregnancy.

dLife,March of Dimes and the American Diabetes Association offer short informational articles.

Diabetic Mommy includes information from studies on managing diabetes during pregnancy.