It is changing how pregnant women are tested for pregnancy diabetes. This is what it means for you

How Australian pregnant women are tested for pregnancy diabetes will be launched with modern national guidelines.

The changes are expected to lead to a smaller number of diagnoses in women with lower risk, reducing the load on additional monitoring and intervention. Meanwhile, changes focus on care and support for women and children who will benefit.

These latest recommendations have been the first update of pregnancy diabetes research for over a decade and potentially affect Over 280,000 pregnant women A year in Australia.

The modern guidelines that we were involved in writing are today issued by Australian diabetes in pregnancy society and Published in The Medical Journal of Australia.

What is pregnancy diabetes? Why do we test it?

Maternity diabetes (also known as pregnancy diabetes) is one of the most common medical complications of pregnancy. It affects almost one in five Pregnancy in Australia.

This is defined by abnormally high levels of glucose (sugar) in the blood, which first perceives during pregnancy.

Most of the time gestational diabetes disappears after birth. But women with pregnancy diabetes at least seven times more likely To develop type 2 diabetes in later life.

In Australia, routine screening is recommended for pregnancy diabetes for all pregnant women. It will continue.

This is because treatment reduces the risk of poorer pregnancy results. This includes very enormous children – a state called macrosomy – which can lead to complex births and imperial. Treatment also reduces preeclampsia risk when women have high blood pressure and protein in urine and other stern pregnancy complications.

Screening for pregnancy diabetes is also an opportunity to identify women who can operate diabetes prevention programs and ways to support their long -term health, including support in nutrition and physical activity.

Why does testing change?

Most women operate detection and treatment. However, in the case of some women, the diagnosis may have a negative impact. It often refers to how care is provided.

Women described the feeling Shame and stigma after diagnosis. Others report challenges Access to care and support they need during pregnancy. This may include access to specialized doctors, health care workers and clinics. Some women circumscribed their diet in an unhealthy way, without proper supervision by a health care worker. Some had to change the preferred maternal care supplier or birth location, because their pregnancy is now considered a higher risk.

Therefore, we must diagnose the condition in women when the benefits outweigh the potential costs.

When is blood sugar too high?

Diagnosis of pregnancy diabetes is based on having blood glucose levels above a specific threshold.

However, there is no clear level, above which the risk of complications begins to grow. And determining the best thresholds to identify who does it and who is not, gestational diabetes has been subject to many tests and debates.

All over the world, Testing approaches and diagnostic criteria They differ fundamentally. There are differences in who is recommended for testing when tests should be used in pregnancy screening that should be used and what diagnostic glucose levels should be.

So what changes?

Recent recommendations are the result of a review of current evidence with a wide range of professional and consumer groups.

The test will continue

All pregnant women who do not yet have diagnosis of diabetes before pregnancy or gestational diabetes, a screening in the period from 24 to 28 weeks will still be recommended. They will still have an oral glucose tolerance test, a measure of how the body processes sugar. The test covers the post from day to day and a blood test in the morning before drinking a sweet drink. Then there are two more blood tests in two hours. However, fewer women will have this test twice during pregnancy.

The changes mean more targeted care

The following changes mean that health services should be able to change the orientation of resources to provide women with access to the care needed to support healthier pregnancies, including early support for women who need them most:

• Women with risk factors for existing, unrecognized diabetes (such as a higher body weight index or BMI or previous enormous child) will be sieved in the first trimester of pregnancy, with one, soon blood test (known as HBA1C)

• Less women will have an oral glucose tolerance test at the beginning of pregnancy, preferably from ten to 14 weeks of pregnancy. This early tests will be reserved for women with specific risk factors, such as pregnancy diabetes in the previous pregnancy or a high level in the HBA1C test

• Women will be diagnosed only if their blood glucose levels are above modern, higher cut -off points for the oral glucose tolerance test, for tests carried out early or later in pregnancy.

Which tests do I need?

These changes will be implemented in the coming months. That is why women are encouraged to talk to the maternity provider about how the changes are used.