You can control your glucose level with a combination of eating right, exercising, and taking medications as directed by your health care professional. You may need to see your health care professional more often. Your health care professional will schedule frequent prenatal visits to check your glucose level and for other tests.

Babies born to mothers with pregestational diabetes may have problems with breathing, low glucose levels, and jaundice. Most babies do well after birth, although some may need to spend time in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The good news is that with proper planning and control of your diabetes, you can decrease the risk of these problems.

Gestational diabetes is a form of high blood sugar that occurs only during pregnancy. Women with gestational diabetes have normal blood sugars before pregnancy, and the large majority will have normal blood sugars immediately after they deliver. Some women have undiagnosed diabetes or prediabetes that they and their medical providers did not know they had prior to becoming pregnant. In this case, it can be difficult to determine whether the mother had been diabetic or is experiencing gestational diabetes, but treatment during pregnancy is the same: controlling blood sugars to the same goals with lifestyle changes or medication.