The link between diabetes and birth defects is not completely understood, but good control of glucose levels appears to play a large role in prevention.
Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examined nearly 18,000 records from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (4,895 control subjects, and 13,030 cases of children with birth defects) in an attempt to understand the impact of maternal diabetes on a wide range of birth defects. Their study found that diabetic women with good glucose control have the same chance of having children with birth defects as the general population. But as a woman's glucose levels climb, so does her risk of having a child with birth defects.
Pregestational diabetes. Women who gave birth to children with any birth defect were three times more likely to have pregestational diabetes, and those who had babies with multiple defects were more than nine times more likely to have pregestational diabetes.
Gestational diabetes. Although women who had children with birth defects were about 1.5 times more likely to have gestational diabetes, weight may play a large role in that outcome. According to the study authors, the associations of defects to gestational diabetes "were weaker and generally limited to offspring of women with a prepregnancy" body mass index of 25 kg/m2 or higher. The authors think it likely that many of these women had undiagnosed pregestational diabetes.
According to coauthor Adolfo Correa, the study results are "a call to action [horizontal ellipsis] to improve access to preconception care for women with pregestational diabetes, especially those who are obese or overweight."
Tammy Worth
NewsCAPS
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