Mild Diabetes Treatment In Pregnant Women Reduces Risks
Posted on: Thursday, 1 October 2009, 12:46 CDT
Treating even the mildest forms of gestational diabetes among pregnant women can reduce the risk of complications during pregnancy, according to new research.
Researchers in the Maternal Fetal Medicine Units Network of the NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human (NICHD) conducted a study of 958 women who had mild gestational diabetes.
Of those participants, half received treatment for gestational diabetes and the other half only received standard pregnancy care.
Authors said the typical treatment for mild gestational diabetes includes proper diet and exercise to lower blood sugar levels in pregnant women.
For the study, researchers defined mild gestational diabetes as having normal blood sugar levels after fasting and abnormally high levels in at least two readings in a period of three hours.
Researchers found that women who received treatment for mild gestational diabetes were half as likely to give birth to unusually large babies, and four-fifths as likely to give birth by cesarean section, compared to those who did not receive treatment.
Additionally, researchers noted that pregnant women who received treatment were three-fifths as likely to develop high blood pressure or preeclampsia.
'This study is important because it clearly indicates the value to mothers and their newborns of screening for and treatment of diabetes-like conditions provoked by pregnancy," said co-author Dr John Thorp, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.
"Our work resolves a 40-year controversy in women's health and should be immediately helpful to both pregnant women and the clinicians caring for them."
Authors said that giving birth to large children poses certain risks.
"Obstetricians are concerned with the immediate risks of birth trauma which may accompany delivery of large infants to women with diabetes," said Dr Mark Landon of Ohio State University, who co-authored the study.
These risks include skull fracture, fracture of the collarbones, and injury to the nerves that connect the arm, hand and shoulder to the spine.
"Whether to treat mild gestational diabetes has never been entirely clear," said study co-author Catherine Spong, chief of the Pregnancy and Perinatology Branch at the NICHD.
"The study results show conclusively that both mothers and infants do better when gestational diabetes is controlled."
"The children would need to be followed long term to be certain, but it's possible that treating women with mild gestational diabetes to reduce birthweight and body fat among their newborns may benefit these children later in life," said Dr Spong.
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Source: RedOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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