During pregnancy, the load on the woman's body increases significantly. This can provoke disturbances in the work of internal organs and lead to the occurrence of diseases. In order to timely identify diseases that have arisen or worsened during pregnancy, expectant mothers are assigned a large number of different studies. One of the mandatory studies is the glucose tolerance test, or in other words, the "sugar load". As a result of this study, gestational diabetes can be detected in a pregnant woman.
Gestational diabetes, or gestosis, is a form of diabetes that develops in the expectant mother during the period of gestation. Gestosis develops as a result of the fact that the mother's body does not produce the required amount of insulin.
Gestosis can negatively affect the intrauterine development of the child. That is why a glucose tolerance test is mandatory for a pregnant woman for a period of 24-28 weeks.
This test is carried out as follows:
- A pregnant woman donates blood from a vein in the morning on an empty stomach. In this case, the night before, you must refuse to eat. The glucose level is measured immediately after the first blood sample is taken.
- Then, within 5 minutes, the pregnant woman drinks a specially prepared glucose solution.
- An hour after the pregnant woman drank the glucose solution, blood is taken from her vein again and her glucose level is measured. If the results indicate gestational diabetes, the test is discontinued. If the standard indicators are not exceeded, then after another hour, blood is taken from the vein again.
Thus, this study takes an average of 3 hours.
The following blood glucose limits for pregnant women have been determined:
- no more than 5, 1 mmol / l during primary blood donation;
- no more than 10 mmol / l 1 hour after consuming glucose solution;
- no more than 8, 5 mmol / l after 2 hours.
To obtain reliable research results, a woman must prepare, namely:
- refrain from eating 10-14 hours before the start of the test;
- exclude physical activity;
- provide yourself with a balanced diet;
- inform the doctor about the medications, vitamin complexes taken at the time of the study.
If, according to the results of the study, a woman was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, she is taken for special monitoring. The main conditions for ensuring the normal course of pregnancy are diet and moderate exercise. After 1, 5 months after giving birth, the woman will have to re-pass the test to determine whether diabetes has arisen during pregnancy, or it is an independent disease.
