WOMEN are being urged to maintain a healthy weight before and during pregnancy to prevent a "time bomb" of children developing diabetes.
Research has shown that babies born to mothers who have gestational diabetes in pregnancy are six times more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes in later life.
The charity Diabetes UK said women should keep to a healthy weight while trying to conceive and not gain too much weight in pregnancy to lower the risk of gestational diabetes.
According to the NHS, up to 18 per cent of pregnant women develop gestational diabetes, which is caused by too much glucose in the blood.
The condition usually disappears after the baby is born but there are long-term health risks for mother and child.
Type 2 diabetes can lead to early death, heart disease, kidney failure and the need for amputation.
Gestational diabetes is also linked to premature birth, the need for a Caesarean section and high blood pressure in pregnancy.
Diabetes UK said increasing rates of gestational diabetes could mean a "health time bomb" for children going on to develop Type 2.
Mothers also have seven times the risk of developing Type 2 if they have experienced gestational diabetes.
Barbara Young, chief Executive of Diabetes UK, said: "It is well established that gestational diabetes is a serious health issue that can cause birth defects, stillbirth and complications for the mother.
"But it is also important that women understand that gestational diabetes leaves a frightening legacy, putting the child at increased risk of a serious health condition which, if poorly managed, can lead to complications such as kidney disease, stroke and amputation.
"Given that we know being overweight significantly increases risk of gestational diabetes, we need to get across the message to women that making sure they are a healthy weight is important for their child's health and that this health benefit may stretch many years into the future."
Douglas Twenefour, clinical advisor at Diabetes UK and author of the charity's new guide on the issue, said: "By giving mums-to-be all the information they need to help them manage their condition, we aim to reassure them and help them to achieve safer and happier pregnancies, reducing the short-term and long-term risks to mother and child."
Research published in June in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology found that women who exercised during pregnancy are less likely to have gestational diabetes.
Other risk factors include having the condition during a previous pregnancy, having a previous child who weighed more than 10lbs at birth and being over the age of 25.
Women from a South Asian, black, African Caribbean or Middle Eastern background also have a higher risk.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here