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Home › Articles › Tests and Procedures › Making the Grade

Making the Grade

A Guide to Tests during Pregnancy

By Teri Brown

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Farmer says for patients with no known history of any form of diabetes themselves, or in the absence of a strong family history of diabetes, as well as the absence of any spilled sugar in the urine testing done at the prenatal visits, many doctors offer a glucose tolerance test at around the end of the second trimester. If any of these indications are present the glucose tests are done much sooner.

The patient fasts overnight and then is given a substance with a high sugar content to drink. Then blood is drawn at various one-hour intervals to ensure that the blood sugar levels are not higher than normal.

"For patients with an initial out-of-range test, additional and more extensive testing may be ordered," says Farmer. "If a patient is determined to have gestational or some other type of diabetes, they will be counseled by the provider about appropriate diet and/or medication strategies to ensure that there is not an elevated blood sugar throughout the remainder of the pregnancy. Patients with previous diabetes before a pregnancy are carefully monitored, as they have an increased risk of birth defects in the offspring, as well as pregnancy complications, including a larger than normal birth weight baby."

*Name changed to protect privacy.

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