'Gestational Diabetes becoming a major social stigma in country'

Tirupati: Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) has become a growing cause for concern among women across the world. Diabetes that is first recognised or sets in during pregnancy and usually disappears after pregnancy is referred as GDM. The global estimates of GDM indicate that 20 crore women are suffering with diabetes mellitus globally while in India one in 10 women are living with it. The most worrying factor is that it has been taking a toll on matrimonial issues and making families suffer.

According to doctors, GDM has been leading to social problems and certainly has become a family problem. In the past, after five months of pregnancy women used to get diabetes whereas now even in their second or third month they were witnessing high sugar levels. This trend underlines the growing importance of premarital and pre-pregnancy counselling for several youth.

A senior diabetologist and chairperson of AP Chapter of Association of Physicians of India Dr P Krishna Prasanthi explained that in India alone, GDM complicates nearly 40 lakh pregnancies.  While one in six live births occur to women with some form of hyperglycaemia, 84 per cent of them are due to GDM. It complicates nearly 40 lakh pregnancies annually in the country.  It underlines the need for all pregnant women to be screened for GDM.

With increasing prevalence of Type-2 diabetes mellitus in children and young adults, pregnancies complicated by Pre-Gestational Type-2 diabetes mellitus are now emerging as a significant health challenge. Overweight, family history of diabetes, pregnancy at age above 25 years, high BP during pregnancy and PCOS among other things are risk factors for GDM.

Dr Krishna Prasanthi said that with the growing concerns on GDM, Padma Shri awardee Dr V Seshaiah of Chennai has carried out a great research on it. He felt the need to test every pregnant woman for diabetes and designed a screening test at any time they visit the hospital which was accepted internationally.   Now, it has become mandatory for every woman to undergo a sugar test after pregnancy is confirmed which can save the mother and the foetus.

Dr Prasanthi said that any mother giving birth to more than 3.5 kg foetus indicates that she has high diabetes during her pregnancy. It was officially proven that foetuses born to diabetic mothers are prone to get diabetes and female foetuses will again get gestational diabetes, she revealed.   It has become more a human problem as most of the newly married women find resistance at their maternal houses as they are not ready to accept it forcing them to hide the disease which is causing more problems. Awareness should come in gynaecologists and acceptance attitude in families. Families should not harass the pregnant woman out of social stigma, she said.

She felt that pre-pregnancy, pre-marital counselling is necessary. From school level education programmes on menstrual hygiene, health and wellness education should be there. All students should be empowered about their motherhood in educational institutions. Lifestyle modifications are to be made.  If there are any problems, they should be discussed even before the marriage itself which can avoid further problems.