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Prenatal Malnutrition & Its Relation to Diabetes

The prenatal care a child receives can effect the child for the rest of his life. Poor prenatal care, including malnutrition, can have a host of effects upon both the fetus and the mother. Because the fetus receives everything that enters its system from the mother's system, if you are suffering from malnutrition, then so is your fetus. These effects include health problems such as diabetes.

  1. Prenatal Malnutrition

    • Like their full grown counter-parts, fetuses need a full nutritional palette for optimal health. This includes calcium, vitamins and folic acid, protein, iron, and other micro-nutrients. The pregnant woman is, as the saying goes, eating for two, and gaining weight during a pregnancy is normal. When you are pregnant if you try to control your weight through dieting it could malnourish your fetus in the process.

    Recommended Diets

    • According to Sutter Health, when you are pregnant you should take in a daily diet that includes six to11 servings of breads and cereals, three to five servings of vegetables, two to three servings of protein, at least eight glasses of water over the course of the day, two to three servings of dairy products, and two to four servings of fruit.

    Diabetes and Malnutrition

    • Diabetes is a condition in which your body has problems producing or using insulin. Insulin is a hormone which allows the body to break down and digest foods. According to John Tonkiss, an associate project director at the Boston University Medical Center, a variety of studies on both humans and animals have found that babies whose growth was slowed by prenatal malnutrition are at a higher rate of developing a number of ailments later in life. These include heart problems, hyper tension, and diabetes.

    Diabetes and the Mother

    • In a small percentage of women, pregnancy can cause a temporary condition called Gestational Diabetes. This is caused by the hormonal changes brought on by pregnancy, and usually corrects itself after the you give birth. However, if untreated, it could cause the glucose levels in the womb to increase to unsafe levels and cause a baby to be born with macrosomia. Babies born with macrosomia have heightened risks of obesity during childhood and type two diabetes as adults.

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