Effects of Pregnancy Diabetes on FETUS | Gestational Diabetes effect on baby

"Basically gestational diabetes does not cause any kind of congenital abnormalities or anomalies of the fetus because gestational diabetes is the diabetes that is occurring in the pregnancy for the first time. It is entirely different from a woman who is having diabetes for many number of years before she has actually fallen pregnant. Overt diabetes means diabetes in a woman for a long time before she has fallen pregnant cases a lot of congenital abnormalities in the developing fetus. As far as gestational diabetes is concerned, the two main things that it causes is macrosomia, that is increased weight of the fetus, that is the babies weight goes up more than above 4 kgs and the water around the baby it increases, a condition called as polyhydramnios. As a consequence of polyhydraminios or macrosomia, there is overdistension of uterus, that is the diameter of the uterus increases and the placental size increases and because of this there is an early onset of preeclampsia that is hypertension in pregnancy and polyhydramnios can cause preterm labor, that is the patient going in for preterm labor much before 34 or 35 weeks of gestation. So the bottom line is since the diabetes has occurred after the conception, that is after the fertilisation, the problems that occur at the time of fertilisation are usually absent in gestational diabetes. It basically occurs in overt diabetes"