LOS ANGELES — The number of pregnant women with pre-existing diabetes has more than doubled in seven years, a California study found, a trend with health risks for mothers and newborns.
And the number of diabetic teenagers giving birth grew fivefold during the same period, according to the study, the largest of its kind.
Expectant mothers who don’t control their diabetes face an increased risk of miscarriage and stillbirth. Their babies have a higher chance of birth defects.
“These are high-risk pregnancies,” said Dr. Florence Brown, an expert on pregnancy and diabetes. “All women with pre-existing diabetes need to plan their pregnancies.”
Brown is co-director of the Joslin-Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center diabetes and pregnancy program in Boston. She had no role in the study, which was conducted by researchers at Kaiser Permanente, a health-care provider based in California.
The researchers focused on the health records from more than 175,000 ethnically diverse women who gave birth in a dozen Kaiser hospitals in Southern California from 1999 to 2005. Experts believe the findings likely reflect the overall U.S. population.
The rise of diabetes among women of childbearing age mirrors the prevalence of the disease in the general population. The most common form of diabetes is Type 2, which is linked to obesity.
