What are the risk factors for developing gestational diabetes?
Not everybody is at the same risk for getting gestational diabetes. If you’re in a high risk group, you’re much more likely to get it, and if you’re a high risk group member, then after the baby is delivered you’re at risk for getting diabetes subsequently. Just like everything in diabetes, it’s lifestyle. So, if you had gestational diabetes, you had the baby and you’re able to lose the baby weight, maybe a few extra pounds if you need to, and exercise, you’ll markedly reduce your risk not only of getting diabetes in the future but of getting diabetes with a subsequent pregnancy. Gestational diabetes is really type 2 diabetes brought on in higher-risk people by a pregnancy that causes insulin resistance. Almost everybody that gets gestational diabetes has some risk, but sometimes it happens in women that don’t seem to have any risk factors. That’s one of the reasons we screen almost everybody with a glucose test during pregnancy, because we don’t want to risk missing it. So, even thoug
