During pregnancy usually at around 28 weeks or later many women are diagnosed with gestational diabetes (Pepe, 2004). It is a serious condition with health implications for mother and baby. Gestational diabetes (or gestational diabetes mellitus, GDM) is a condition in which women without previously diagnosed diabetes exhibit high blood glucose levels during pregnancy (Sugaya, 2005). Pregnant women who have never had diabetes before but who have high blood glucose (sugar) levels during pregnancy are said to have gestational diabetes. Based on recently announced diagnostic criteria for gestational diabetes, it is estimated that gestational diabetes affects 18% of pregnancies (National Diabetes Data Group, 2009).
According to WHO (2011), GDM affects 3-10% of pregnancies, depending on the population studied, and is growing in prevalence. The World Health Organization criteria as a guide to the severity of hyperglycemia, mentioned that there is a significant increases in the incidences of the more severe grades of GDM in parturient born in the Mediterranean region, Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Egypt, and Arabic countries.
Babies born to mothers with GDM are at increased risk of problems typically such as being large for gestational age, low blood sugar, and jaundice (Khan, 2004). Women with GDM are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus after pregnancy (Gabbe, 2010). Up to one-third of affected women have diabetes or impaired glucose metabolism at their postpartum screening (Alberti and Zimmet, 2005). An estimated 15% to 50% will develop diabetes in the decades following the affected pregnancy (Pepe, 2004). Lifestyle modification should therefore be encouraged, along with regular screening for diabetes. While their offspring are prone to developing childhood obesity, with type 2 diabetes later in life (Charles, 2012). Recent studies show that