The Augusta University researchers explain that women who obtain diabetes during pregnancy have a high risk to pass it on to their unborn child. The intensity of glucose and fatty substance through food intake of the mother may develop diabetes and obesity in children in the future. The number of pregnant women acquiring the said disease is dramatically increasing.
The National Institute of Health, granted Dr. Jennifer Thompson a-five-year-1 million dollar fund to study the effect of gestational diabetes in children. The grant was given to the young generation of researchers to aid them in finding answers regarding the said health issue.
As Thompson's research is centered on the study of gestational diabetes, she explains, "With very high rates of maternal obesity, you are going to have high rates of gestational diabetes,". "Babies born to those women tend to be much bigger and are more prone to worse outcomes at birth."
And she continues, "But what we know little about is the long-term impact for these babies,". "A "handful" of studies in humans pointed to problems later on with obesity, Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease."
She also said, the gestational diabetes in pregnant women has become a serious problem, but still there's no strong evidence regarding the matter due to insufficient investigation on the subject matter. She uses mice as a guinea pigs and in the test administartion, Dr. Thompson saw the sign of gestational diabetes and believes it to affect the offspring while inside the womb.
"I think that the mother's health during pregnancy or her lifestyle during pregnancy or the fact that she had gestational diabetes during pregnancy may be a big influence. We can change the mother's health during pregnancy. It is something that we can modulate and we can
target as a preventative measure." She concluded.
