High blood sugar in pregnancy ups child’s obesity risk

“The mother’s blood sugar level during pregnancy is an independent contributor to the child’s weight and risk of being obese later in childhood,” says corresponding study author Boyd Metzger, professor emeritus of medicine in endocrinology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

“We’ve known for a long time that family characteristics predict a lot about how you’re going to look…,” Metzger says. “This is above and beyond the mother’s weight. This takes into account all those other factors.”

Higher risk for moms, too

Mothers with higher-than-normal blood sugar during pregnancy—even if not high enough to meet the definition for gestational diabetes commonly used in the US today—also were significantly more likely to have developed type 2 diabetes a decade after pregnancy than their counterparts without high blood sugar.

Researchers have known that treating high blood sugar during pregnancy reduces problems for the newborn and mother. Lowering a mother’s blood sugar reduces the birth weight of the child, as well as the risk of pre-eclampsia, a potentially life-threatening condition in which the mother has high blood pressure that affects her and the baby..." | Learn More >>