Gestational diabetes is a condition that occurs during pregnancy. Like other forms of diabetes, it involves a defect in the way the body processes and uses dietary sugars (glucose).

In gestational diabetes, the problem is in the placenta, an organ inside the womb that attaches the embryo to the womb's wall. During a normal pregnancy, the placenta provides the baby with nourishment. In addition, it produces hormones that interfere with the body's response to insulin, a hormone involved in regulating glucose levels in the blood. In most pregnant women, the pancreas (the gland that produces insulin), simply makes extra insulin during pregnancy to counteract the effect of these hormones. However, when a woman's pancreas cannot produce enough extra insulin, blood glucose levels stay abnormally high, and she is considered to have gestational diabetes

Most women with gestational diabetes have no recognizable symptoms. However, leaving this form...