It is uncertain if additional dietary advice interventions help to reduce the risk of gestational diabetes. However, data from the Nurses Health Study shows that adherence to a healthy plant-based diet is associated with lower risk for GDM.Diet and physical activity interventions designed to prevent excessive gestational weight gain reduce the rates of gestational diabetes. However, the impact of these interventions varies with the body-mass index of the person as well as with the region in which the studies were performed.Moderate-quality evidence suggest that there is a reduced risk of gestational diabetes mellitus and caesarean section with combined diet and exercise interventions during pregnancy as well as reductions in gestational weight gain, compared with standard care.It has been suggested that for women who have had gestational diabetes, support between pregnancies may lower their chances of having gestational diabetes again in future pregnancies. This support might include diet and exercise, education, and lifestyle advice. However, there is no research to show whether interventions between pregnancies lower the number of women who develop gestational diabetes again.Theoretically, smoking cessation may decrease the risk of gestational diabetes among smokers. Management
Treatment of GDM with diet and insulin reduces health problems mother and child. Treatment of GDM is also accompanied by more inductions of labour.A repeat OGTT should be carried out 6 weeks after delivery, to confirm the diabetes has disappeared. Afterwards, regular screening for type 2 diabetes is advised.Lifestyle interventions include exercise, diet advice, behavioural interventions, relaxation, self-monitoring glucose, and combined interventions.
The risk of hypoxia and the resulting risk of poor condition in newborn infants was nearly 7-fold in the fetuses of mothers with GDM compared to the fetuses of non-diabetic mothers. Furthermore, according to the findings, the risk of needing to perform resuscitation on the newborn after birth was 10-fold.Another finding was that gestational diabetes increased the susceptibility of the fetus to intrapartal hypoxia, regardless of the size of the fetus. "The risk of hypoxia and the resulting risk of poor condition in newborn infants was nearly seven-fold in the fetuses of mothers with gestational diabetes compared to the fetuses of non-diabetic mothers," says researcher Mikko Tarvonen. According to the findings, the risk of needing to perform resuscitation on the newborn was ten-fold.Research into complications for GDM is difficult because of the many confounding factors (such as obesity). Labelling a woman as having GDM may in itself increase the risk of having an unnecessary caesarean section.Neonates born from women with consistently high blood sugar levels are also at an increased risk of low blood glucose (hypoglycemia), jaundice, high red blood cell mass (polycythemia) and low blood calcium (hypocalcemia) and magnesium (hypomagnesemia). Untreated GDM also interferes with maturation, causing dysmature babies prone to respiratory distress syndrome due to incomplete lung maturation and impaired surfactant synthesis.Unlike pre-gestational diabetes, gestational diabetes has not been clearly shown to be an independent risk factor for birth defects.