Birth defects linked to diabetes

McALLEN -- Women diagnosed with diabetes before becoming pregnant are three to four times more likely to have a child with at least one birth defect than non-diabetic mothers, according to new government research.

The statistic is especially sobering in the Rio Grande Valley, where prevalence rates for diabetes far outstrip state and national rates for the disease.

There are 39 birth defects associated with diabetes, including heart defects, defects of the brain and spine, oral clefts, defects of the kidneys and gastrointestinal tract and limb deficiencies.

Researchers at the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released their findings last week in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The study's authors also found that women who develop gestational diabetes during pregnancy are 7 percent more likely than non-diabetic women to bear a child with any of these birth defects.

"What happens is that a lot of (diabetic women) don't get diagnosed until the 28th week (of pregnancy), and because of this, a lot of the (fetus') major organs have already developed ... causing some kind of abnormality, like an extra finger," said Linda Roberto, director of the Doctors Hospital at Renaissance Diabetes Center in McAllen.

Researchers' observations suggest some of the mothers who develop gestational diabetes probably had undiagnosed diabetes before they became pregnant or will develop type 2 diabetes later in life.

A person has diabetes if his or her glucose level is above 125 milligrams of glucose per deciliter of blood.

Roberto said it is not uncommon for her to see patients who have glucose levels of 300 milligrams or more and who are 100 pounds overweight.

"Down here (in the Valley) ... a lot of the women are not ready to take care of themselves," Roberto said.

Generally, 50 percent of pregnant women who are not diabetic plan their pregnancies, whereas 70 percent of diabetic pregnant women do not plan their pregnancies, she said.

"Anybody who has diabetes can have problems anyway," Roberto said.

But the bodies of diabetic women who become pregnant and fail to maintain a healthy lifestyle are basically dangerous incubators for their babies, she said.

Currently, pregnant women diagnosed with type 2 diabetes are prescribed a regimen of insulin injections to help stabilize their glucose levels, but a recent study in Australia showed that taking an insulin pill could be effective and safe for the fetus, said Elizabeth Braunstein, nurse manager at the Hispanic Health Research Center at the Brownsville Regional Campus of the University of Texas School of Public Health.

Within the next few months, the research center plans to try to replicate the study with Hispanic women in the Brownsville area to determine the pill's effectiveness, as diabetes is more prevalent here than it is in any other part of the nation, Braunstein said.

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Lynnea Olivarez covers general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4422.