WEDNESDAY, Nov. 27, 2013 — Diabetes can raise your risk for heart disease, kidney disease, blindness, and more, but did you know it can also affect your children's health? Babies are are more likely to die in the womb or shortly after birth when its mother has diabetes, according to a new study published in the journal Diabetologia, and experts say the findings show the importance of managing your blood sugar during pregnancy.
Researchers from Newcastle University in the UK looked at data on more than 1,500 women with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes who gave birth in 1996, and compared them to healthy women who gave birth during the same year. They found that babies were nearly 5 times more likely to die in the womb and nearly 2 times as likely to die within their first year of life when born to diabetic mothers compared to babies born to healthy mothers, even when researchers excluded the increased risk of death from birth defects.
Uncontrolled blood sugar during pregnancy can lead to a host of congenital issues and birth defects, according to the study, such as cleft lip, cleft palate, kidney defects and limb deficiencies, which greatly increase a baby’s risk of death. However, researchers excluded deaths from these defects, finding that simply having high blood sugar can be deadly for your child.
“It’s not uncommon for infants born to diabetic mothers to have breathing problems,” said Scott Drab, PharmD, a diabetes specialist and associate professor of pharmacy and therapeutics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy. “Oftentimes women with diabetes will go into premature labor and will deliver early, which raises the risk for death.”
In addition, insulin can pass through the placenta, which can be deadly for newborns.
“Some infants will have low blood sugar when they’re born because the mother’s insulin levels are so high,” Drab said. “So as soon as they are born, they get an insulin spike, which can cause seizures, brain damage and death.”
The good news, researchers found, is that babies born to women who had their blood sugar under control had death rates comparable to healthy mothers.
“Prepregnancy care, particularly focusing on optimizing glycemic control, improves birth outcomes in women with pre-existing diabetes,” the researchers, led by Ruth Bell, MD, a senior lecturer at Newcastle University, wrote in the study. “With intensive support, some women with diabetes can achieve similar outcomes to those without.”
Drab said the findings underscore the need for expectant mothers who are diabetic to speak with their doctors to ensure they are managing their blood sugar properly.
“If you have diabetes already, you need to plan your pregnancy,” he said. “If you get diagnosed with diabetes during pregnancy, you need to follow up with all of your doctors to ensure that your child is born healthy.”
“Vitamin supplements and folic acid has also been shown to help,” Drab added. “But there’s no substitute for properly managing your diabetes.”