Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

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Abstract
For decades, physicians caring for women whose pregnancies have been complicated by diabetes mellitus have recognized that fetal hyperglycemia, a consequence of maternal hyperglycemia, contributes to excessive fetal growth. In 1954, the Danish internist Jorgen Pedersen hypothesized that maternal hyperglycemia led to fetal hyperglycemia and finally to fetal hyperinsulinemia.1 In the past, fetal deaths in utero, neonatal respiratory distress syndrome, and birth trauma and asphyxia resulting from fetal macrosomia were responsible for the increased perinatal mortality in pregnancies complicated by diabetes mellitus, and all could be linked to fetal hyperinsulinemia. At present, the perinatal mortality rate in patients with insulin-dependent . . .