NCES, an industry leader in nutrition education, recently released the newly updated Gestational Diabetes and You, an informational booklet designed to teach women diagnosed with gestational diabetes about their affliction, including steps expectant mothers can take to help ensure a healthy and successful pregnancy.
Created by NCES dietitians and nutrition educators, Gestational Diabetes and You outlines the effects of high blood sugar on the body during pregnancy, and how it can lead to gestational diabetes – a type of diabetes that starts during pregnancy and often goes away after the birth, affecting 3-5 out of every 100 pregnant women. Readers will learn the effects of gestational diabetes on both the mother and child, and have access to worksheets designed to help plan healthy meals, maintain a regular exercise schedule, and track blood sugar levels.
“It’s so important, for pregnant women to maintain a healthy lifestyle with a combination of proper nutrition and exercise,” says Chris Jackson, NCES president. “The abundance of food with high sugar content makes maintaining healthy blood sugar levels much more difficult, putting a strain on both the mother and child.”
High blood sugar in the mother can often lead to health complications for the child. Newborns are more likely to have low blood sugar levels and high insulin levels if the mother’s blood sugar levels were high, according to the American Diabetes Association. This can lead to a higher birth weight resulting in complications during childbirth, as well as a higher possibility of type 2 diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure later on in life.
“We all know that eating right and exercise is good for you – it’s important to remember that it is also a necessity for unborn children during the various stages of development. Good lifestyle habits practiced by the mother help newborns avoid unnecessary health risks and promote a healthy and safe pregnancy,” said Jackson.
Gestational Diabetes and You includes a sample blood sugar/insulin/exercise record, a food diary sheet, a simplified version of food portions based on the USDA MyPyramid food guidelines, sample meal plan sheet, a pregnancy weight gain curve, information about normal blood sugar levels, and how to keep these levels in a safe range for mother and baby. The booklet was created in an easy-to-read format, making the information easily accessible to all literacy levels and is available in both English and Spanish.
About NCES
Founded in 1989, NCES is an Olathe, Kan.-based company that provides nutrition education resources in the form of books, manuals, videos and teaching tools for educators, public health officials, health care professionals and consumers. NCES offers more than 300 titles in English and Spanish in their catalog of health and nutrition materials, including a number of products developed exclusively by NCES. Gestational Diabetes and You along with other NCES products can be found online at www.ncescatalog.com.