Gestational Diabetes - Essay Example

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet, approximately 2% to 10% of pregnancies in the U.S. were diagnosed with gestational diabetes and these women could have a 35% to 60% chance of developing diabetes in the next 10–20 years (6). Discussing gestational diabetes is relevant to me as the disease runs in the family. In addition, it has relevance to the goals that I want to take in the future: becoming an obstetric nurse and an endocrinologist.

Health practitioners believe that prevention is better than cure and that pregnant women must be taught how to improve their health and their baby through early prenatal care and regular prenatal visitation. However, I believe that educating them about risk factors and preventive interventions will not immediately create awareness towards action to prevent gestational diabetes. Instead of focusing on risk factors and preventive strategies, why not inform pregnant women of the complications of gestational diabetes to them and their babies? This may create fears or worries but surely, pregnant women will take immediate action to avoid complications and inquiry about risk factors and necessary interventions follow.

Gestational diabetes poses some life-threatening and chronic conditions both in pregnant women and newborns. Women with gestational diabetes and who are obese may develop type 2 diabetes later in life. They have also increased susceptibility and mortality to other illnesses such as pneumonia and influenza. Women with gestational diabetes have marked biochemical imbalances which may lead to life-threatening conditions diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), hyperosmolar (nonketotic) coma, and high blood pressures. In addition, women with gestational diabetes tend to deliver babies via cesarean section and acquire birth injury (trauma) due to large infant size.

Meanwhile, babies are also harmed if the mother has gestational diabetes. According to the CDC's 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet, 5% to 10% of babies suffered from major birth defects while 15% to 20% of fetuses are spontaneously aborted if women developed diabetes early in pregnancies (9). There is also a slightly increased risk of newborn death and stillbirth (A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia, n.p.). Complications still continue as the newborn strives to adapt outside the utero. Before birth, the baby gets glucose from the mother through the placenta. In a gestational diabetic mother, the baby is used to get more glucose as the mother has a high level of blood sugar. When the baby is delivered, he/she continue to use more glucose just like when he/she is inside the mother’s womb; however, the baby’s the only source of glucose when outside the utero is through breast milk or formula. In this case, the baby is using more glucose than what is being produced, resulting in an inability to maintain normal blood glucose levels or a condition called hypoglycemia.