Maternal and neonatal outcomes of gestational diabetes: A retrospective cohort study from Southern India

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of gestational diabetes is on the rise. Understanding the various outcomes of it is necessary to face this challenge. OBJECTIVES: To study the frequency of occurrence of various maternal and fetal outcomes among gestational diabetes patients. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study conducted in rural Kerala, a southern state of India. The study participants were followed up for a period of 4 years, from 2007 to 2011. The participants included 60 women with gestational diabetes and 120 women without gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes was the major exposure variable. The frequencies of various outcomes were computed. Multivariable logistic regression was done to compute the risk for various outcomes in gestational diabetes. RESULTS: The major outcomes included termination of pregnancy by caesarean section, long-term progression to type 2 diabetes, in-born nursery (IBN) admissions and increased neonatal birth weight. The maximum adjusted RR [13.2 (1.5-116.03)] was for the development of type 2 DM later. CONCLUSION: Gestational diabetes can result in significant feto-maternal outcomes; so better facilities are needed to manage gestational diabetes.