Chapters in Books (Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (STIAS))

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Browsing Chapters in Books (Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (STIAS)) by Subject "Diabetes in pregnancy"

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    Diabetes in pregnancy : lessons for developing countries
    (African Sun Media, 2020) Yajnik, Chittaranjan; Wagle, Sonali S.; Kumaran, Kalyanaraman; Krishnaveni, Ghattu V.
    Pregnancy diabetes is fast becoming a common condition across the world with developing countries particularly affected. In the short term, maternal hyperglycaemia worsens pregnancy outcomes, but in the long run, it appears to be a precursor to diabetes and cardiovascular disease in the mother and obesity and diabetes in the child. Thus, pregnancy diabetes is thought to contribute to the escalating epidemic of obesity and diabetes. Classic thinking is that pregnancy diabetes consists of pre-gestational diabetes and gestational diabetes. There are considerable confusion and controversy about the diagnosis and management of gestational diabetes. There is increasing evidence that risk factors and metabolic disturbances of gestational diabetes patients are present long before pregnancy, implicating peri-conceptional fetal programming of future obesity and diabetes. This chapter reviews what developing countries need to consider as a public health challenge in the context of gestational diabetes and how to contribute to research that will improve the understanding of the condition: biology, diagnosis, costeffective treatment, and long-term contribution to the health and economy of the nation. A lot can be learned from the experience of the developed world that will help to avoid the pitfalls plaguing this field. Forming a multinational consortium may improve the efficiency of such research.