Diabetes in women increases ‘pregnancy complications’

Pregnant women suffering from diabetes are at a higher risk of their children being born dead or with serious defects, a new study has revealed.

Research published today in the British Medical Journal shows that despite pan-international efforts to raise diabetes-treatment standards across the world, the fact that the number of women with type 1 or type 2 diabetes is on the rise means that more newborn babies are potentially at risk.

Researchers from the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health analysed perinatal mortality rates and congenital anomalies in babies born in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to 2,359 women with diabetes, three-quarters with type 1 and one-quarter with type 2, between March 1st 2002 and February 28th 2003.

The proportion of babies born dead among women with type 1 diabetes was 3.17 per cent, slightly less than the 3.2 per cent of babies born to women suffering from type 2 diabetes.

In comparison less than one per cent of babies are born dead to women without diabetes.

When it comes to babies with major congenital anomalies, 4.6 per cent of babies born to women with either types of diabetes suffer from serious heart or nervous system defects, compared to less than two per cent in the general maternity population.

In light of their findings, the UK research team believes that doctors should prescribe an increased dose of folic acid, which can help prevent neural defects, to pregnant women after conception, and that women continue to take the five milligrams 12 weeks into their pregnancy.

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