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USA: Number of Diabetic Women Having Babies Has Doubled - Study

 

The number of women suffering from diabetes who fall pregnant has more than doubled in the past six years, raising fears their children could also become diabetic, a new study said Monday.

Researchers examined 175,249 teenage girls and women who gave birth in 11 hospitals run by the Kaiser Permanente Foundation in California between 1999 and 2005.

They found that in 2005 twice as many babies were delivered to women who were diabetic before becoming pregnant compared with six years earlier.

The vast majority, 52 percent, were Hispanic, while 26 percent were white, 11 Asians and 10 percent were African-American.

"More young women are entering their reproductive years with diabetes, in part due to the fact that our society has become more overweight and obese," said lead author Jean Lawrence.

"While we currently don't know how to prevent type 1 diabetes, the steps to reducing risk of type 2 diabetes must start before childbearing years: healthy eating, active living and maintaining a healthy weight."

The researchers stressed the health risks of being diabetic before becoming pregnant were greater to mother and child than gestational diabetes which develops during some eight percent of pregnancies, and then usually disappears.

"Women with pre-existing diabetes are more likely to have miscarriages, stillbirths, and babies with birth defects because they may have elevated blood sugar during the first trimester of pregnancy when the infants' organs are developing," the study said.

"My advice to women who have type 1 or type 2 diabetes and are thinking about becoming pregnant is: work with your health care professional to get your blood sugar in good control," Lawrence said.

"If you are pre-diabetic or have type 2 diabetes and are overweight, work on reducing your weight by a few pounds before becoming pregnant," he added.





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