Diabetes and Pregnancy

Looking back, Deborah Newton of Dallas, Texas, suspects she may have had diabetes when she was pregnant with her first child, now 17. But her physician did not diagnose her with diabetes until she was 30 years old and pregnant with her second child. "I did not know I had diabetes until the sixth month," says Newton, who has Type I diabetes. "I found out through a blood test. They take your blood every month. It showed up."

According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), some women learn they have Type I or Type II diabetes while they are pregnant. However, according to the ADA, about 4 percent of all pregnant women suffer from gestational diabetes. With gestational diabetes, women experience high blood-sugar levels during pregnancy. The condition usually goes away after pregnancy.

Newton, however, continues to live with diabetes today. "I had to go into the hospital for three days, and they monitored everything and gave me an educational course about what I needed to do," she says. "I had to change my diet and I had to go on insulin while I was pregnant."

Newton immediately made changes to her diet, such as concentrating on protein, fruits and vegetables as opposed to refined foods. "I was concerned about the baby," she says. "You can have a premature baby [when you are diabetic], which I did with my first. She was seven and a half weeks early. They think I had diabetes then, too."

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