What is the cause of diabetes and high blood pressure during pregnancy?

Diabetes is a condition in which the sugar in your blood is more than what is normal. If you didn’t have diabetes before conceiving and developed it during your pregnancy due to various hormonal changes during your gestation, it is called gestational diabetics or gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). If your testing confirms gestational diabetes, our first approach is conservative. Nutritional adjustments and adding a comfortable exercise regimen like daily walking may be all that some women require. Home monitoring of your blood sugar with a glucose monitor is also often provided. If necessary, medication is recommended. The food you consume passes through your digestive system and undergoes many processes and reactions and gets broken down into glucose, which is a type of sugar.

This glucose that enters your blood is converted into energy with the help of a hormone called Insulin. The cells in our body use this energy to function. The normal blood sugar ranges will be- Fasting- 70-100mg/dl 1 hour after meals- less than 140mg/dl When you are pregnant, due to various hormonal changes, the production of insulin by the pancreas is disturbed. For some pregnant ladies insulin produced is not sufficient enough to turn the glucose into energy. The unused glucose builds up resulting in high sugar levels in the blood. A high sugar level in blood is nothing but diabetes. Usually, gestational diabetes doesn’t show any symptoms. But sometimes you may feel thirstier, your trips to pee may increase, your mouth may be dry and you may get infections like thrush more often.

Sometimes blurred vision too. But often such physical changes like more wee and thirst are common when you are pregnant and so it is difficult to find out if you have diabetes just by looking at the symptoms. If you have high blood pressure your chance of getting diabetes during pregnancy is high. If you are diagnosed with gestational diabetes, don’t worry much because the majority of ladies deliver healthy babies and have normal gestation if the diabetes is controlled with dietary changes and medications as per your doctor’s advice. But if not treated properly some problems (doctors will tell you) can occur to your pregnancy/delivery and your baby.