A woman who has never had high blood sugar before may develop Gestational Diabetes or GDM during their pregnancy.  Every year about 4% or 135,000 of all pregnant women are affected by it.

Although we don't know what actually causes Gestational Diabetes, it is believed that a hormone produced by the placenta may cause the mother's  body to resist the absorption of glucose.  This may be because her body cannot produce enough insulin and/or the effectiveness of her insulin is reduced.  This type of diabetes is similar to and requires the same treatment as Type II Diabetes Millitus.  It is very important for the mother to keep her blood sugar under control.

Gestational Diabetes does not cause the kind of birth defects that might occur in babies whose mothers had diabetes before pregnancy.  However, left untreated, gestational diabetes can be harmful to your baby. 

Gestational Diabetes does not usually manifest itself in early pregnancy.  It usually occurs in the latter half of the pregnancy.  It's believed that if you eat properly, exercise daily, and maintain your "Ideal" body weight you have less of a chance of having to deal with gestational diabetis.

Let your doctor know if you suspect your blood sugar is too high or too low, (see: Type 2 Diabetes to learn the Symptoms).

Loosing weight is the best way to control, and in some cases, prevent diabetes.  Losing 10 pounds can lower your blood sugar 20 points or more.  That's enough to change a diabetic diagnosis to a non-diabetic diagnosis for some.  See Diet Health Issues on the MasterDiet website.

Natural herbs, like Diabetan, is another easy approach to counter the effects of diabetes without having to take prescriptions drugs or insulin injections.

Naturally, the glucose your body has in the blood will cross over to the baby however, the insulin will not.  When you have Gestational Diabetes, you have too much glucose going to the baby so his pancrease has to create insulin to compensate for this unusually high amount.  This extra glucose is converted to energy which the baby doesn't need so it is stored as fat.  This may cause a condition known as macrosomia of "Fat" Baby.  This condition may cause serious difficulty during child birth.

Some researchers believe, although not confirmed, that micosomia babies have a propensity to be over weight as adults and have a higher risk for Type II Diabetes.