Women who have had diabetes during pregnancy are six to 10 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes after giving birth,and at a twofold risk of suffering a cardiovascular event compared with those without diabetes during pregnancy.
Simona Stirling,mother to daughters Harper (right) and Halle,has been proactive in chasing up testing after being diagnosed with diabetes during her pregnancy.Louie Douvis
But an analysis of more than 10,000 women with gestational diabetes has found fewer than one-third receive a follow-up test identifying ongoing glucose issues,and only 52 per cent had their blood pressure,lipids (including cholesterol) and glucose levels checked by a GP after giving birth.
The,published in the Royal Australasian College of Physicians’ internal medicine journal,suggests women are not receiving adequate follow-up care in the months after birth,said lead author and senior research fellow at the Westmead Applied Research Centre,Simone Marschner.
“These women should be targeted for these types of screening because they’re at such high risk,” she said. “Pregnancy puts women’s body under stress,so it’s a great way to stress test to see where their vulnerabilities are.”
Simona Stirling was put on a small dose of insulin after being diagnosed with gestational diabetes at 24 weeks while holidaying in Singapore.
The 29-year-old said she was given little information on how to manage her glucose levels after giving birth to baby Halle earlier this month,and proactively booked an appointment with her GP to get glucose,lipids and blood pressure testing.
“They really focused on the baby and the baby’s blood sugars,which was totally fine and obviously,I wanted to make sure[Halle] was OK,but they don’t really focus on the mother as much,” she said. “It’s a bit of a blur after you have a baby … but it did take a little bit of pushing to get what I needed.”
Dr Helen Barrett,conjoint associate professor from the Royal Hospital for Women Clinical School,UNSW Medicine,said many women who go through gestational diabetes “put themselves on the backburner” once they enter motherhood.
“It’s a bit of a blur after you have a baby … but it did take a little bit of pushing to get what I needed.”
Simona Stirling,who was diagnosed with gestational diabetes at 24 weeks
“While it’s really understandable that people might think,‘I was unwell during the pregnancy,that’s gone now’ … actually it’s telling them something important about their body,” she said. “We know a parent modelling their own health behaviours influences their children’s health behaviours as they grow up,so looking after yourself is looking after your kids.”
The Australasian Diabetes in Pregnancy Society (ADIPS) recommend a follow-up test between 6 and 12 weeks after birth to identify abnormal glucose issues which might indicate other forms of diabetes.
Gestational diabetes is diagnosed when elevated blood glucose levels are first detected during pregnancy,and must be managed to reduce the risk of health complications for the mother and the baby.
Rates of gestational diabetes have more than doubled in Australia in the last decade,with the latest Australian Institute of Health and Welfare revealing 18 per cent of all pregnant women were diagnosed with the condition in 2021-22,amounting to almost 54,000 cases a year.
The rise followed a controversial decision to lower the threshold for diagnosing gestational diabetes,which some researchers has led to pregnant women being over diagnosed with the condition.
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