Gestational diabetes, and why you need to maintain a healthy weight during pregnancy

You might be wondering why you have been advised to start your pregnancy at a healthy weight if you're just going to gain weight anyway.

Vanessa Brown, the diabetes specialist nurse at the Centre for Diabetes and Endocrinology (CDE), explains that women who have had gestational diabetes are at an increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes later in life.

"A further often unappreciated fact is that children whose mothers had diabetes during their pregnancies have a greater likelihood of becoming obese during childhood and adolescence and of developing type 2 diabetes later in life," she adds.