Health Tip: Risk Factors for Gestational Diabetes

It begins during pregnancy

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(HealthDay News) -- Gestational diabetes starts in women during pregnancy, then often disappears after the baby is born.

Women who develop the condition should be carefully monitored throughout pregnancy, and should carefully manage their diet.

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Here are common risk factors for gestational diabetes, courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine:

• Being of African or Hispanic descent.
• Becoming pregnant when older than 25.
• Having had a child with a birth defect.
• Having had a baby weighing more than 9 pounds.
• Being obese.
• Having frequent infections.
• Having an unexplained miscarriage, or having a newborn who died.

-- Diana Kohnle