A new study found that nearly half of cases gestational diabetes This can be avoided if body weight is maintained within normal limits before pregnancy. Gestational diabetes is a form of diabetes that is first diagnosed during pregnancy, also known as the gestation period. Like other types of diabetes, gestational diabetes affects how your cells use sugar (glucose). causes of gestational diabetes High blood sugar which can affect your pregnancy and your baby’s health. Gestational diabetes increases the risk of type 2 diabetes later in life.

The study followed nearly two million births in Sweden from 2000 to 2020. Obesity and overweight, indicated by a body mass index greater than 30, have been studied for adverse pregnancy outcomes. For the study, researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, estimated the extent to which pregnancy complications could be prevented if women had a normal weight before pregnancy.

“For example, we concluded that about half of all cases of gestational diabetes could be potentially prevented,” said Mariam Shirvanifer, a PhD student at Linköping University and first author of the study published in The Lancet Public Health journal. This applies to both women born in Sweden and foreign-born women.

Researchers found that more than a quarter of pre-eclampsia cases could be avoided if a healthy weight was maintained before pregnancy. This condition involves high blood pressure and may also be accompanied by severe headache, vision problems like blurred vision, swelling in feet and ankles, etc.

The study included both women born in Sweden and women who moved to the country from regions around the world, including Europe, Latin America and South Asia. According to lead researcher Pontus Henriksson, a senior associate professor in the Department of Health, Medical and Care Sciences at Linköping University, efforts to promote healthy weight could be beneficial for all women, regardless of ethnicity.

“A healthy weight is good for everyone,” Henriksen said. The earlier in life the better, because once obesity is established it is difficult to treat.

Of the nearly two million pregnant women studied, about 17,000 were born in South Asia. The authors wrote, “Women born in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa and the Middle East had almost four times the incidence of gestational diabetes due to overweight and obesity compared with women of Swedish origin, which is ” Possibly due to the higher prevalence of gestational diabetes in pre-natal areas.”

Other complications the researchers looked at included infant death in the first year of life, premature birth and abnormal size of the baby at birth. To do this, they took data from national registers to analyze the relationship between a woman’s body mass index before pregnancy and the complications she experienced in which region of the world she lived.

“Promoting healthy weight in pregnancy has the potential to reduce the burden of adverse pregnancy outcomes and potentially reduce disparities in reproductive health,” the authors said.

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