Diabetes and Pregnancy Part 1: Gestational Diabetes

This is the first of two articles about diabetes and pregnancy, and focuses on gestational as opposed to pre-existing diabetes. The case below sets the scene and poses a number of questions that the article will consider. The effects of hyperglycaemia in pregnancy were first described by Bennewitz[1] who documented a case of a stillborn macrosomic infant in a 22-year-old woman in Berlin. She had symptoms of hyperglycaemia, but these disappeared after the delivery. In 1882, Duncan[2,3] described the outcomes of 22 pregnancies in 16 women. Amongst his conclusions was that hyperglycaemia could resolve after delivery. Incidences There are 700,000