Pregnant women with diabetes are up to five times more likely to lose their baby, say scientists.
Both type one and type two can trigger complications leading to infant mortality, either in the womb or shortly after birth.
The condition also raises the risk of emergency Caesarean section, according to new research.
The 15-year study of almost 813,883 Scottish deliveries identified 104 deaths around the time of birth in children of mothers with diabetes – 65 and 39 among type one and type two patients, respectively.
These rates are 4.2 and 3.1 times higher, respectively, than in the general Scottish population. Stillbirth rates were four times and five times higher for type one and type two.
The problem could be partly due to diabetic mothers being more likely to have larger babies, increasing the strain of pregnancy for mother and child.
Lead author Dr Sharon Mackin, of the University of Glasgow, said: “There were marked differences in outcomes in women with diabetes compared to non-diabetic women.”
Dr Mackin said diabetes in pregnancy remains relatively uncommon, affecting one in every 178 births.
But the prevalence of diabetes, particularly type 2 which is linked to obesity, is increasing and Dr Mackin said that this meant that there were more complicated pregnancies.
She added: “Pregnancy for women with diabetes remains high risk and much remains to be understood regarding causes and effective interventions .
“There is a major unmet need to improve perinatal outcomes for women with diabetes treated during pregnancy.”
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel