Characteristics of Pregnancy, Delivery and The Postpartum Period in Pregnant Women Diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Gestational diabetes mellitus refers to both transient diabetes that arises during pregnancy and is restored postpartum as well as forms of the disease that arise for the first time during pregnancy and persistently exhibit insulin-dependence (type 1) after childbirth. The basis for the development of gestational diabetes is the existence of insulin resistance.

Our target population was pregnant women between 20 and 46 years of age who were diagnosed with gestational diabetes (after the 24th week of pregnancy) and who were treated at the Department of Pathology of Pregnancy, Clinical Centre Kragujevac. During the research period, data were collected from 95 pregnant women with diagnosed gestational diabetes. In 3 women, the pregnancy ended in intrauterine foetal demise, and the study was continued with 92 subjects. This is a cross-sectional, retrospective and observational study.

The average age of the examinees in our sample is 31.6 years. A total of 77.89% of the examinees achieved normoglycaemia exclusively via a hygienic dietary regimen. However, 27.2% of the subjects exhibited comorbidities in addition to gestational diabetes, which further complicated the pregnancy. A total of 70.7% examinees delivered between the 37th and 40th week of gestation. Vaginal delivery was dominant, with episiotomy in almost half the cases. The average body weight of newborns from pregnancies complicated by gestational diabetes was 3587.07 grams, which is very close to the macrosomia limit of 4000 grams.

The timely detection of gestational diabetes and an adequate treatment of pregnant women can prevent the occurrence of foetal macrosomia as the primary complication of these pregnancies. Pregnancy complicated by gestational diabetes is not necessarily an indication for a Caesarean section.