Can You Get Rid of Gestational Diabetes – Why and How?

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Typically, you cannot get rid of gestational diabetes (GD) during pregnancy but it will go away on its own after childbirth. Therefore, if you successfully control your blood sugar during pregnancy – there should be nothing to worry about. Because your insulin response and the mechanism of your body in regulating blood glucose will return to normal soon after pregnancy!

During pregnancy, why can’t you get rid of gestational diabetes?

Once you are diagnosed with GD, there is nothing to do to get rid of it during pregnancy. The most important thing you need to do is how to control the condition so thus it will not be harmful to your baby and yourself.

If left uncontrolled, it increases your risk of having some complications such as early labor and problems affecting your newborn after delivery (these may include breathing problem, a newborn with hypoglycemia at birth, and your baby is at high risk of getting obesity later in life).

However the good news, most pregnant women diagnosed with GD can cope with the problem and have healthy pregnancies.

While the condition is manageable, it doesn’t go away until your delivery, why? The key of the answer is the continuously production of pregnancy hormones triggered by the placenta. These hormones may affect the way of your insulin to work.

Insulin has important function to maintain and regulate the level of your blood sugar. It is responsible to help the process of absorption for glucose from the blood plasma /bloodstream to the body’s cells. If the process of this absorption runs properly, your body can continuously maintain your blood sugar on its own.

In some pregnancies (about 3-5 percent of all pregnancies), the pregnancy hormones triggered by the placenta decrease the insulin sensitivity. As a result, the mechanism of blood sugar metabolism is impaired.

So in general, the condition would not go away as long as you still have the placenta, an organ that links between your baby and your uterus’s wall.

What’s next after delivery?

Once your placenta is gone after giving birth, let’s your body take control your natural healing. Your body usually will cure itself to get back the normal function of insulin in controlling blood sugar.

About 6 weeks after your childbirth, your insulin sensitivity and other mechanisms in the body to help blood sugar control would return again!

To find out whether your GD has gone, your doctor usually asks you to take a screening test. This test is usually more focused to analyze the performance of your glucose metabolism after pregnancy.

Since women with a history of GD are at high risk of developing type-2 diabetes, it’s important for them to keep close with healthy practices (regular exercise and eating right). They should take a screening test for type-2 before the age of 45.

According to the National Diabetes Education Program, the chance for women who had GD to develop type-2 after pregnancy is about 35-60 %. Even about 5-10 % of this group are likely to be diagnosed with type-2 diabetes several months after pregnancy.

Home remedies to manage gestational diabetes

To manage and control it during pregnancy, you need to keep monitoring your blood sugar, control it as close to normal as possible! Your doctor may ask you to check your blood sugar more often.

Eating right!

This advice is not only important to control your GD but also important for your overall health. Healthy diet for GD is similar to diet for type-1 and type-2 diabetes.

However, there may be some adjustments to make sure that you get plenty of nutrients for the development & growth of your baby. Read also a sample meal plan for gestational diabetes on this section!

Exercise

Being pregnant doesn’t mean you don’t need to get plenty of physical activity. Regular exercise can give a significant contribution to maintain your fit status before – during – and after pregnancy.

If you are not yet diagnosed with GD, regular exercise can help reduce your risk of developing GD during pregnancy. And if you have been diagnosed with GD, it improves your insulin response and reduces the use of insulin replacement. What’s more?

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