Higher risks with Gestational Diabetes

An unusually large study of over 700,000 births has indicated that babies born to mothers with gestational diabetes have increased risk of poor outcomes.  The French study, published in Diabetologia, drew on the entire national database looking at all deliveries taking place after 22 weeks in France in 2012.  This cohort of deliveries contained 7.24% mothers with gestational diabetes.

The increased risk of various complications for mothers with gestational diabetes versus mothers without it were: preterm birth 30%; Cesarean births 40%; pre-eclampsia/eclampsia 70%; babies born significantly larger than average size 80%; respiratory distress 10%; birth trauma 30%; and cardiac malformations 30%.

Dr Emily Burns, research communications manager at Diabetes UK stressed that:  ‘The overall risk of complications during pregnancy for these women is relatively low, but we need to eliminate it completely,’

For more information see RCM article here

And to view the research itself see here.