Wrap Up

Blog Wrap Up

This has been an interesting journey! Having a blog.  It was a new experience and I really enjoyed every part of it.  You know, when you are working on something that is interesting, time moves fast.  The time has come when, as I am looking back, I would like to thank you for visiting my blog, posting comments, encouragements that increased our knowledge about gestational diabetes.  

Being a condition that usually appears during pregnancy, gestational diabetes is manageable.  This blog provided information about gestational diabetes and how to manage it.  The following information summarizes what was discussed in the blog:

1.      A condition that affects insulin use in the body, gestational diabetes affects women during pregnancy and usually goes away after delivery.

2.      Although gestational diabetes is temporary, its consequences may last for a lifetime.

3.      Temporary consequences such as increased discomfort during the last trimester of pregnancy and delivering the baby through C-section may be challenging for the mother prior to and after birth, especially as it may take long to heal while taking care for a newborn.  The baby also may suffer from birth trauma due to large size.

4.      Lifetime consequence includes the possibility of developing type 2 diabetes.

5.      Gestational diabetes management strategies include nutrition, physical activities and medications, if prescribed by the doctor.

As health educators, creating awareness is important in order to prevent and help women manage gestational diabetes.

This experience has helped learn more about gestational diabetes through research and also learn from your blogs.  It has been an experience worth living and as we move on, I will continue to explore more about breast cancer, food safety, disparities, bipolar disorder, diabetes, health issues, tobacco, women’s issues, and gestational diabetes.

I wish you the best!

Ahondju Umadjela

Diabetes and Neural Tube Defect

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM, 2013), besides inadequate amount of folate before conception, poor management of diabetes is a risk factor for having a child with birth defects known as neural tube defect.  The most common neural tube defects include spina bifida and anencephaly.  Spina bifida occurs when the spinal cord fails to close as it develops within the first 30 days of gestation (Spina Bifida, 2007).  Lack of spinal cord closure affects nerve impulse transmission to the lower body part, causing muscle weakness or paralysis (Spina Bifida, 2007).  This condition is also known as paraplegia and lasts for a lifetime.  The other birth defect, anencephaly, occurs when the infant is born without a brain (Anencephaly, 2010).  Infants born with spina bifida defects usually survive, but those born with anencephaly do not survive (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2012).  Although the mechanism through which poorly controlled diabetes increases the risk of neural tube defect is not clearly established, researchers investigated 23 single nucleotides and found an association between the mother’s genes and the child’s susceptibility of developing neural tube defect (Lupo et al., 2012)

References

Anencephaly. (2010). In Black’s Medical Dictionary, (42^nd ed.). Retrieved from

            http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2134/entry/blackmed/anencephaly

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2012b). Folic acid for healthy babies. Retrieved

            from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/orders/pdfs/GeneralPublic_Fact_Sheet508.pdf

Lupo et al. (2012). Diabetes and obesity-related genes and the risk of neural tube defect. American Journal of Epidemiology, 176, 1101-1109.  Retrieved from

            http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2835/content/176/12/1101

Spina Bifida. (2007). In Encyclopedia of Special Education: A reference for the education of children,

adolescents, and adults with disabilities and other exceptional individuals. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2134/entry/wileyse/spina_bifida