Gestational diabetes is the condition of blood sugar levels higher than normal during pregnancy time. In most women, there will be no specific symptoms of gestational diabetes, but the same may be detected during a routine glucose tolerance test or random blood sugar test. According to available studies, 7-10% of pregnant women are having this condition.
So, doctors are taking care to screen all pregnancies for the same in almost all countries, as much as possible. Pregnancy itself is a fragile condition, where both the fetus and mother undergo a lot of metabolic and physical changes. Even during normal pregnancy, hormones cause a lot of changes in the body and emotional being of the mother. Diabetes in this condition makes it the worst. As we already know, diabetes is a chronic disease with irreversible and serious pathogenesis damaging all the organs and systems in the body.
Effects of Gestational Diabetes
Though considered temporary, gestational diabetes can cause severe impacts on both mother and baby inside. Most women with this condition go back to their normal health after giving birth to the bay. But it increases their risk of getting type 2 diabetes in later life. It is important to understand the fact that the condition is known as gestational diabetes only if the mother is diagnosed with high blood sugar levels during and only during pregnancy for the first time in her life.
Identifying gestational diabetes to take care of your health clinically is tricky as it almost always overlaps with the normal signs of pregnancy such as fatigue, increased hunger, and thirst, frequent urination, etc. These may not be considered as signs of diabetes in a pregnant woman let alone, gaining weight or edema. In some women, losing weight despite pregnancy may be a sign of diabetes. Diabetes in pregnancy may not show any immediate and characteristic symptoms but it can harm both mother and fetus if not managed well.
The mother may suffer from complications like high blood pressure, pre-eclampsia, difficult labor, and many other serious issues including a future chance of developing diabetes mellitus, etc. The baby may be overweight and chances include birth anomalies, breathing problems, or even stillbirth. The bay also has a chance of developing diabetes mellitus in the future. Another important and dangerous complication of gestational diabetes is fetal macrosomia or abnormally large baby, leading to a cesarean section with complications.
Such a fatal condition though, it may show no sign at all. While understanding the clinical manifestations, most women may be having no symptoms at all. Or most of them go hand in hand with the discomforts of pregnancy. Many moms with diabetes feel extreme tiredness or fatigue even if they take good nutritious food and enough rest.
Feeling weak or severe fatigue is mostly the first to manifest among early signs of gestational diabetes. Other early signs include severe and very frequent urge to pee, excess urine output, severe thirst, and dry mouth, severe nausea, and vomiting especially after a meal, very strong craving for sweet items or drinks like juices. Some women may feel numbness or a tingling sensation in their hands and feet. Rarely, visual disturbances and blurred vision may be present which should be taken very seriously. The condition is mostly diagnosed in the third trimester, by the 24th week of pregnancy. So, it is tested in all pregnancies between the 24th and 28th weeks. Women who are more prone to gestational diabetes should be screened from the earlier weeks of pregnancy. It is not always practical to predict the occurrence of gestational diabetes in a woman. But if you find any of the following risk factors, you fall in the category of people with a higher chance to develop the condition. Risk factors include obesity, recent uncontrolled weight gain, sedentary lifestyle, lack of physical activity and exercise, an earlier pregnancy with gestational diabetes, polycystic ovary, high blood pressure, family history of diabetes mellitus, and a history of delivering an overweight baby. Black women, especially American Indian or Asian American ones are considered to have a higher chance of developing gestational diabetes, compared to Europeans.
Management of gestational diabetes includes cutting sweet foods completely, proper exercise, and medications needed. The safest and effective way of medication is insulin. Supplementing insulin is the first line of choice because it is effective in the condition, yet does not cross the placenta. So, the baby is unaffected in most cases. Considering pregnancy as the most delicate condition a female body can go through, safe and soft measures should be chosen for the management of complications during pregnancy including diabetes. It is normal for everyone to ask for safe natural remedies which are effective in controlling type 2 diabetes blood sugar levels. There are traditional Ayurveda medicines that are effective yet safe for both the mother and the baby. Ayurveda is the traditional medicinal and health system of India with its practice of thousands of years.
They use locally available and natural herbs to make special formulations as safe medications. Ayurveda explains taking care of a pregnant woman is like walking with a pot full of oil in it without leaking even a drop of oil. Such intensive care is given to pregnancy and a detailed description on ante-natal, during delivery and post-natal measures are in Ayurvedic classic treatises. Ayurveda describes month-wise development in detail. Safe herbal Ayurvedic medicines along with a proper diet are essential. Ayurveda gives importance to the Agni or digestive power of the person in all conditions. It is necessary to maintain a balance between your digestive power and food intake. A pregnant woman should take food she craves for and that should be most nutritious. The diabetes diet plan includes fresh and homemade food items which are easy to digest, devoid mostly of sweet taste, of course. Ayurveda suggests safe herbal formulations to manage gestational diabetes under expert supervision.
