When you first became pregnant, all you knew about nutrition and pregnancy were the basics: no caffeine, no alcohol, and definitely no smoking. Your doctor would tell you the rest, and with a healthy diet, you looked forward to raising a happy, healthy baby.
However, you may not have been told that a mother’s blood sugar can also affect the health of an infant, and if not controlled carefully, a mother’s glucose levels can lead to a serious Virginia diabetes birth injury.
Many women develop diabetic symptoms throughout the course of their pregnancy (called gestational diabetes). While the correlation between gestational and type-1 or-2 diabetes in pregnancy is not clear, gestational diabetes symptoms should be monitored closely to avoid health risks to both mother and child.
A recent UK study of over 400,000 pregnant women confirmed some worrying points about diabetes and pregnancy complications:
- 72 out of every 1,000 women with diabetes experienced major birth defects in their children, a rate nearly four times higher than in women who did not have diabetes.
- Researchers found that women who had worse blood sugar control at around the time of conception were at increased risk of having babies with birth defects.
- Out of roughly 9,500 pregnancies that were affected by at least one major birth defect, 129 of them occurred in women with diabetes.
- Roughly 80% of the women who experienced birth defects had type-1 diabetes.
Our Fairfax birth injury attorneys know that no mother would willingly put her child at risk. However, if your doctor failed to warn you about the complications of diabetes – or did not perform any tests for gestational diabetes – he may be at fault for your child’s birth injury.
If a doctor’s negligence caused your newborn child to suffer, we can help. Our attorneys can help you get compensation for your delivery bills, intensive care treatment, and future costs of raising an injured child. Call Shevlin Smith today at (703) 721-4233 to start your FREE consultation.
Want more information? Click the link at the top of this page to receive a FREE copy of our book, Do I Have A Case? A Patient's Guide to Virginia Medical Negligence Law.
