What exactly is gestational diabetes?

Women with gestational diabetes have trouble processing glucose, or blood sugar. Your body makes blood sugar from foods high in carbohydrates. It is your body’s main energy supply.

Normally, insulin, a hormone produced in your pancreas, keeps blood sugar in the normal range. Insulin’s main job is to transport glucose to your muscles and other tissues. If something interferes with this transport system, blood sugar builds up in your blood causing diabetes.

Pregnancy naturally causes a glitch in the processing of blood sugar. To protect your baby, the placenta produces hormones that partially block insulin’s effect.

To avoid a buildup of blood sugar, your pancreas usually kicks into higher gear during pregnancy to make additional insulin. But, in some cases, the pancreas is not able to make enough insulin to counter the insulin-blocking effects of pregnancy hormones.

When this occurs, gestational diabetes is diagnosed. Without enough insulin, a woman’s body produces too much blood sugar, which can trigger health problems for the woman and her baby.