PREGNANT women are being warned not to eat for two after research showed that obese mothers who develop gestational diabetes while pregnant and put on more weight after giving birth are 43 times more likely to go on to develop diabetes than slim women.
The increasing prevalence of gestational diabetes parallels the worldwide epidemic of type 2 diabetes, the research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) said.
Gestational diabetes is a common pregnancy complication. Previous studies have shown that up to a third of women with type 2 diabetes have a history of gestational diabetes during pregnancy and as a result, women in that position are usually advised to control their weight after delivery.
In this study, researchers in the United States analysed 1,695 women who reported gestational diabetes from 1991 to 2001.
They found there were 259 cases of type 2 diabetes during up to 18 years of follow-up.
There was an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes of 16 per cent for each increase of one unit in either their baseline body mass index (BMI) or most recent BMI.
They also found that each 11lb increment of weight gain after gestational diabetes development was associated with a 27 per cent higher risk of type 2 diabetes.
And women who had a BMI of 30 or higher and gained 5kg or more after gestational diabetes had a 43 times increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared with women who had a BMI of 25 or less at baseline and gained 5kg or less after gestational diabetes.
Researchers said these associations persisted across different categories of age, family history of diabetes, diet quality, physical activity and breastfeeding duration.
Janet Fyle, professional policy advisor at the Royal College of Midwives, said the findings highlight the need to dispel the myth about eating for two during pregnancy.
She said: "This research underlines the need for women to start their pregnancy in optimal health at a healthy weight and to maintain this during and after their pregnancy.
"It also shows the need for better information, education and support for women about the benefits of healthy eating during pregnancy: for example, we need to dispel the myth that women need to eat for two during pregnancy.
"It is important for women to realise that help is available for them from midwives and others, to manage their weight during pregnancy and to avoid gaining too much."
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 hereComments are closed on this article