How to Prevent Gestational Diabetes

Gestational diabetes is when a woman gets diabetes while she is pregnant. A woman with gestational diabetes has never had diabetes before and the condition was directly brought on by her pregnancy. She will usually be diabetes-free after delivering her baby. Gestational diabetes affects 4 percent of pregnant women. The good news is that gestational diabetes is detectable, preventable and controllable. Read on to learn how to prevent gestational diabetes.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Get tested. The first step to preventing gestational diabetes is knowing if you are at risk for it. Most pregnant women in the United States are tested for gestational diabetes around their twenty-eighth week of pregnancy. There is both a one-hour test and a three-hour test. Most pregnant women will be asked to take the one-hour test and move on to the three-hour test only if the first test comes back with elevated results. If the second test comes back with elevated results then the woman is diagnosed as someone who has or is likely to develop gestational diabetes.
2. Follow the gestational diabetes diet. This diet will give you a guideline on what to eat in order to prevent or control gestational diabetes. If your test result is high enough, then you should receive a copy of this diet from your doctor. If not, you can still find the guidelines for this diet on the Internet.
3. Exercise at least 30 minutes a day, three times per week. Light to moderate exercise is fine and probably best since you are pregnant, but make sure that you stick with it and are committed to it. This is important for the health of both you and your baby. Women with gestational diabetes are at risk for giving birth to large birth weight babies who have wide shoulders. This puts the baby at risk for shoulder dystocia during birth, which can potentially cause paralysis.

Tips & Warnings

• Always consult with your obstetrician during your entire pregnancy. Do not make any diet or lifestyle changes without their permission.