Obesity-high blood sugar combo creates pregnancy risks
Washington: Overweight women with moderately elevated blood
sugar are at a higher pregnancy risk than their obese
counterparts with normal blood sugar or those who have
gestational diabetes but normal weight. One of the adverse
outcomes is having large babies, the result of fat accumulation.
Large babies increase the risk of injury to the baby during
vaginal delivery, increasing the likelihood of a Caesarean
section. A pregnant woman`s higher blood sugar level and weight
can also lead to higher insulin and lower blood sugar levels in
a newborn. In turn, these effects may eventually trigger obesity
and diabetes, perhaps as early as childhood, the journal
Diabetes Care reports. "We need to address the combination of
overweight and blood sugar of these women as urgently as we do
for women who are obese or have gestational diabetes," said
principle investigator Boyd Metzger, professor of endocrinology
at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Th