Asian female with white partner may have higher risk of diabetes while pregnant

Researchers are working on the whys and hows of gestational diabetes because of the risks to both baby and mother if a pregnant woman develops it. While type 2 diabetes (what used to be called adult onset) has definite risk factors and causes type 1 diabetes (what used to be called juvenile diabetes or insulin dependent diabetes) and gestational diabetes don’t follow any patterns.

The genetics of people who develop gestational diabetes has been a place where researchers have been spending time and money. By understanding if certain ethnic groups are more liable to develop the disorder, then perhaps they can be monitored more closely and problems can be dealt with before they become big problems.

In an article that will be published in the October issue of American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, researchers announce that they found an increase in gestational diabetes in Asian women who have children with white men. According to a press release issued by the Standford University Medical Center, "The researchers also found that Asian women whose partners are white are more likely than white women with Asian or white partners to have a caesarean delivery, as part of a broad analysis of perinatal outcomes among Asian, white and Asian-white couples."

The press release also said: "More specifically, the researchers found that white mother/Asian father couples had the lowest rate (23 percent) of caesarean delivery, while Asian mother/white father couples had the highest rate (33.2 percent). Because birth weights between these two groups were similar, the researchers say the findings suggest that the average Asian woman’s pelvis may be smaller than the average white woman’s and less able to accommodate babies of a certain size. (Asian couples had babies with the lowest median birth weight, so caesarean delivery was less common among those women.)"

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Tags: pregnancy blog, diabetes while pregnant, gestational diabetes