Can unmanaged diabetes during pregnancy have a long-term impact on the baby?
Dr. Brown: I would have to say yes. High blood sugars during pregnancy lead to uncontrolled fetal growth so babies are born large for their gestational age. Those babies, those large birth-weight babies, are more likely to have impaired glucose metabolism as children. They are more likely to be obese as children. Large birth weight girls are more likely to develop gestational diabetes as women. And they are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes. Twenty years ago we saw very few women with Type 2 diabetes and now we see quite a few. We are seeing women who are in their twenties with gestational diabetes where we used to see just patients in their thirties and forties with gestational diabetes. I think this relates to the rise in obesity of our population. What is gestational diabetes and how does it differ from Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes? Dr. Takoudes: Gestational diabetes is basically a temporary insulin resistant state. It usually happens around the 26th -30th week of pregnancy. Ther
