(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Even if a pregnant woman doesn’t have diabetes,
higher than normal blood sugar levels put her and her babies at risk for birth
problems similar to those of diabetic mothers and their babies.
Elevated blood sugar levels make a caesarean delivery and an abnormally high
body weight for the baby more likely. It also raises the possibility of shoulder
dystocia -- when the baby’s shoulder gets stuck inside the mother, stopping the
birth process.
The seven year study is the first to show that many of the risks faced by
diabetic mothers are also faced by those with blood sugar that is high but not
high enough to be considered diabetes. The work was partially funded by the
National Institutes of Health and led by researcher Boyd E Metzger, M.D., a
professor of medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
in Chicago.
Dr. Metzger said before this study, doctors were not sure at which point a
mother’s elevated blood sugar posed a risk to the baby. The authors would not
make recommendations as to what accepted blood sugar levels are, nor were
researchers able to identify a precise level where high blood sugar affected the
outcomes indicated in the study.
Five percent of all pregnancies in the United States involve women with
diabetes. They face additional risks that have been known for some time
including increased risk for preeclampsia, a potentially fatal condition
involving high blood pressure. Babies born to diabetic mothers are also at
higher risk for obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes later
in life.
“These important new findings highlight the risks of elevated blood sugar levels
during pregnancy,” Duane Alexander, M.D., Director of the NIH’s Eunice Kennedy
Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, was quoted as
saying. More studies are underway and until more information is available, it’s
recommended that pregnant women talk to their doctor about diabetes screening.
SOURCE: The New England Journal of Medicine, 2008;385:1991-2002
