January 26, 2003
Gestational Diabetes
Question from Prairieville, Louisiana, USA:
This is my seventh pregnancy, the first two of which two ended in first trimester miscarriages. During subsequent pregnancies, I did the glucose tolerance test between 27-29 weeks and failed several of them. All the resulting babies weighed over nine pounds and were born 4 to 12 days early with the exception of my fifth pregnancy. She was induced on my due date and was born vaginally weighing 10 pounds 10 ounces. I never (that I recall) had any typical symptoms of diabetes, and I gained 30-40 pounds during all of them. My daughter who was born as a result of my sixth pregnancy had a unstable lie so I required a C-section. In addition, she was born with low blood sugar, but I hadn’t eaten in 30 hours. Could I be developing diabetes after the 30th week of pregnancy?
Answer:
Given your history I would recommend repeating your glucose screen at 32 weeks gestation. The alternative would be to just start an appropriate diet during the pregnancy to perhaps better control the growth of the baby. Of course, you may just produce big babies.
OWJ
