Reducing Your Risk After GDM
Reviewed by CDE Mehandi Sharma · Updated
The risk of Type 2 diabetes after GDM is high, and it is also one of the most changeable risks there is. That combination is worth taking seriously.
What actually helps is not exotic. It is the same set of things that prevents progression from prediabetes: regular activity, attention to weight around the abdomen, and an eating pattern with carbohydrate spread out and enough protein and vegetables.
You have an unusual advantage here. You have just spent several months learning what specific meals do to your blood sugar, weighing portions, and walking after eating. Most people trying to reduce their diabetes risk are starting from nothing. You are not.
The realistic problem is the newborn. The months after a birth are not when anyone builds an exercise routine, and advice that ignores that is useless. So the honest version is: keep the eating pattern, which costs no time, and rebuild the activity later rather than never.
Do not attempt a weight-loss project while establishing feeding and recovering from a birth. Discuss timing with your doctor.
One more thing: the changes that reduce your risk reduce your family's too, and a household that eats the way you learned to eat during pregnancy is doing something useful for everyone in it.