The 7.2kg baby

The other night I had dinner at my friend’s house who’s a doctor. Present were many other doctors. In fact, I was the only non-doctor at the table. Doctors often marry doctors, and they tend to socialize with other doctors. I spent a couple of years in med school, and I could spot this trend already then. Perhaps it’s because people tend to bombard them with health-related questions, which isn’t exactly fun when all you want to do is relax with a glass of wine. It could also be that the long working hours make it difficult to have a social life with other people who aren’t on the same crazy schedule as you.

All my doctor friends work a lot. This particular group was obstetricians, and when my diabetes came up, the topic moved from shaken baby syndrome to diabetic mothers. About five percent of pregnant women develop gestational diabetes, a form of temporary diabetes that goes away after the delivery in most cases. This is on top of all the mothers who are permanently diabetic, which makes diabetes very important to obstetrics.

One of the doctors at the table was fascinated by the subject, having just been to a diabetes seminar. He told us that earlier that week he had delivered the largest baby he’d ever seen. It weighed 7.2kg. I want you to stop and think about that for a second. It’s double the weight of what would be considered normal. The doctor went on to say that the baby was so large it wouldn’t fit on the scale they use to weigh the newborns. It also had to be treated for hypoglycemia at birth. The mother was diabetic.

Larger babies are becoming more common as people are getting larger. The high blood glucose of the mother leads to high blood glucose of the baby in the womb. To combat this more insulin is secreted which drives the fat cells to grow. This leads to larger babies who are often hyperinsulinemic and hypoglycemic at birth. According to Fat Chance, these babies have three times the chance for obesity and diabetes later in life. This vertical transmission has been observed in the Pima Indians, who have the highest incidence of type 2 diabetes in the world. As if life isn’t difficult enough to navigate. Now imagine being metabolically challenged before you’re even born. You can’t help being diabetic, but you can do a lot to manage your blood glucose. This becomes especially important when you’re pregnant. Keep in mind that you’re eating for two.