‘Diabetes check is vital during pregnancy’
Professor Kadyam Gomathi, department of Biochemistry at Gulf Medical University (GMU), spoke exclusively to Khaleej Times highlighting the issue of gestational diabetes and its effect on the mother and unborn baby. She had conducted research on the high prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus in the UAE. Excerpts from the interview: Does gestational diabetes develop due to genetic factors or due to a diet taken by the mother? There is definitely a genetic predisposition for developing gestational diabetes and it seems to involve many genes. Women who develop gestational diabetes in pregnancy have more risk for developing gestational diabetes in subsequent pregnancies as well as diabetes mellitus later in life. However, it is important to understand the role of a diet since maintaining a pre-pregnancy body weight in the normal range and controlled weight gain during pregnancy can prevent gestational diabetes from developing and if developed, minimise the harmful effects to the mother and her unborn child. What steps can be taken before pregnancy to avoid gestational diabetes? Maintaining a normal body weight before pregnancy is a very important step to avoid gestational diabetes since being overweight or obese increases the risk for gestational diabetes. Further, a routine screening test for any pre-existing diabetes mellitus can also be done especially if there has been gestational diabetes in the previous pregnancy. Are there any statistics available on the number of women in the UAE who develop gestational diabetes? Yes, there have been reports in literature on prevalence of GDM in the UAE. However, since the criteria used to diagnose gestational diabetes are different among different investigators, statistics vary.
The prevalence of gestational diabetes using the latest criteria for diagnosis varies between 28 to 37 per cent of pregnant women. To understand it better, it can be said that around 1 in 3 pregnant women in UAE develops diabetes during pregnancy. What is the impact of gestational diabetes on the unborn child and even after birth? This is a very important question and a lot of research is currently focusing on this aspect. Earlier it was thought that the effects of gestational diabetes on the unborn child were only limited to the newborn in that the baby is large in size, there are more complications during delivery and there is risk for hypoglycemia in the baby after delivery. However, newer research suggests that there are many long-term effects including risk of the child being obese and developing diabetes later in life. This is not only due to the genes passed on by the parents but is thought to be due to the epigenetic changes that occur in the DNA of the unborn child due to the diabetic environment in the womb.
asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com