Women develop gestational diabetes during pregnancy. Approximately 2-5% of all pregnant women in the United States are diagnosed with gestational diabetes. After delivery, this condition usually disappears in the woman.

Unlike women with type 1 diabetes, pregnant women diagnosed with gestational diabetes have adequate amounts of insulin in their blood. However, the insulin efficacy - its ability to moderate blood sugar levels - is partially blocked by other hormones created by the growing placenta. This condition is often called "insulin resistance."

As the placenta grows, more of these blocking hormones are produced and the greater the insulin resistance becomes. This "contra-insulin" effect usually begins about midway (20-24 weeks) through pregnancy.)

For most women, the pancreas is able to make enough additional insulin to overcome the insulin resistance, but when this is not enough, gestational diabetes results. Ironically, if all the placenta's hormones could be removed from the mother's blood, the condition would be alleviated, which is, in fact, what usually happens following delivery of the baby.

You are at risk for developing gestational diabetes if you:

• are obese
  
  
• have a family history of diabetes
  
  
• have given birth previously to a very large infant, a still birth, or a child with birth defects
  
  
• have too much amniotic fluid (polyhydramnios)
  
  
• are older than 25 years of age

The Council on Diabetes in Pregnancy of the American Diabetes Association strongly recommends that all pregnant women be screened for gestational diabetes. Women who are African American, Hispanic, or Native American, as well as those with the factors above, are at a greater risk for developing this condition.

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