Union ministry of health and family welfare has released guidelines on Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM). The move follows the survey from Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Group in India (DIPSI) reporting that 3 million women are reporting the condition.

“We are waiting for the implementation of GDM management in the public sector. The roll-out of the programme will happen in a district in Madhya Pradesh by April 2016,” Dr Hema Divakar, ObGyn, representative Core Group of the policy and Chairperson, Asian Research & Training Institute for Skill Transfer (ARTIST).

Our aim is to create awareness about GDM as much as possible at the earliest. Every year, we will be holding awareness campaigns on GDM with constructive action to tackle this menace,” said Dr Anil Kapur, Member, Board of Directors, World Diabetes Foundation.

As the first step, DIPSI, ARTIST and World Diabetes Foundation (WDF) and have teamed up to launch a nationwide campaign against GDM. In India, GDM incidence is reported to be over 3 million annually. This has led DIPSI to declare March 10 as world GDM Day.

V Seshiah, chairman & chief mentor, DIPSI, said that India is witnessing high occurrence of GDM, which is also known as Hyperglycemia in Pregnancy (HIP). In women followed up for 20 years, it was clear that up to 70 per cent, who had GDM, went on to develop diabetes. We felt that we need to take up awareness programmes on GDM on war-footing and hence declared March 10 as GDM Day in India.”

“We recently conducted a survey and our findings revealed that approximately 10 per cent of women, who get pregnant every year, developed diabetes during the gestation period. Even with 10 per cent, the numbers in this country are whopping, as it works out to about 3 million women every year. Of the 3 million women who develop GDM, in 5-10 years after pregnancy, 30 per cent of them have a tendency to develop Type 2 Diabetes, further adding to the number of diabetics in the country. This is an alarming trend, which cannot be ignored. From being called Diabetes Capital of the World, we want India to be Diabetes Care Capital of the World”, said. Dr Divakar.

As the Co-Chair for FIGO (International Federation of Gynaecology & Obstetrics) GDM Working Group, Dr Hema said that this working group has made three key recommendations: Universal testing of all pregnant women for GDM; all countries provide the best GDM management possible given available resources and using postpartum period for increased engagement to improve health for mother and child.

“We intend to launch a campaign on awareness, prevention, early recognition and care of high blood sugars which is not just during pregnancy,” she added.