| Diabetes is an important and common complication of pregnancy. This study compares the outcome of pregnancies complicated with diabetes and those of a randomly chosen control group.;Data collected on case and control pregnancies includes demographic data, information on prenatal care, problems of pregnancies, delivery and the post-partum, and data on a number of problems of the neonate. The data was collected from several sources: birth, fetal death and infant death certificates; maternal hospital charts (including prenatal information) and; infant hospital charts.;Incidence of diabetes in pregnancy in the Washington population is estimated to be nearly 5/1000 births (2/1000 with diabetes diagnosed prior to pregnancy; 2.9/1000 diagnosed gestational diabetics). The incidence of diagnosed gestational diabetes is low compared to expected values from screening studies.;Evidence from this study suggests that infants of both overt and gestational diabetics are at increased risk for a number of complications of the infant, including fetal and infant death, congenital malformations, respiratory problems and birth injuries. While risks are highest for infants of insulin dependent diabetics, infants of non-insulin requiring overt diabetics and gestational diabetics treated with insulin also have significantly increased morbidity and mortality.;Case pregnancies were ascertained, using several methods, from all pregnancies occurring in Washington State, 1979-1980. Controls are a randomly-selected series of pregnancies representative of Washington State. |
