Can hypoglycemia in pregnancy cause low birth weight ....?

Question

and an insufficient placenta.? I know that a diabetic pregnancy can cause large babies. So is the opposite true?

Answer 1

The problem with a diabetic pregnancy is that the baby can go both ways. If its very severe, the result of high blood glucose will be a small baby (or what healthcare professionals call an IUGR baby - intrauterine growth restricted), simply because baby will not have enough nutrients. On the other hand, high blood glucose would stimulate the baby's own insulin causing baby to maintain more fat, and thus be larger.

Going back to your question, the baby in utero is an amazing thing. It thinks most of self preservation and will try to get all it needs even at the expense of the mum. So, it is rare that mum can maintain a hypoglycemic state low and long enough to cause severe IUGR (unless the reason why mum is hypoglycemic is that mum is malnourished).

Answer 2

My mother has Hypoglycemia, I am not sure if it works this way with everyone, but all of my siblings were over 8 pounds. All of the sugars she couldn't process went right to the babies.

Of course at the time she hadn't been diagnosed correctly, but each baby kept getting bigger , the last one being 10+ pounds.

I think if the person with Hypo~ is eating correctly , the baby shouldn't incur any extra weight.

Maybe someone else has better info than this ! =)

Answer 3

It makes sense that the opposite would be true. High blood sugar causes large babies so low blood sugar would cause the baby to starve in the womb. I would think more likely malabsorption though.

Answer 4

Diabetes is usually treated through a combination of diet (low sugar), exercise and medications/insulin. Read here https://tr.im/kGslS
Milder cases can be controlled with just diet an/or exercise while more severe cases require meds or insulin as well.

Answer 5

Diabetics usually have too large babies. There is no way you could be hypoglycemic throughout pregnancy.