How long does it take to do a sugar screening during pregnancy?

Pregnancy is a happy thing for women. However, women should realize that pregnancy also involves great risks, especially abnormal conditions that may occur during the child's development. For example, Down syndrome is a congenital disease that affects fetal development and can cause intellectual and physical development disorders in the fetus. Therefore, it is very necessary to conduct Down syndrome screening. Let’s take a look at how long during pregnancy to do the sugar screening?

How many weeks of pregnancy is best for sugar screening

Healthy pregnant women: A sugar screening test should be performed at 24-28 weeks of pregnancy. At this time, the fetus grows rapidly, the placenta functions strongly, and the factors that lead to diabetes are most obvious and not easy to miss. If any problem is found, treatment should be sought as soon as possible to reduce the impact and harm to the mother and baby.

If the expectant mother passes the sugar screening test before 28 weeks and there is no abnormality in her body, the risk of gestational diabetes can basically be ruled out. However, if the expectant mother is often extremely hungry, has abnormal conditions such as rapid weight gain and excessive amniotic fluid, there may be a problem with sugar metabolism. She should go to the hospital for relevant examinations in time. The doctor will make a correct judgment based on blood pressure, edema, blood sugar and other aspects.

Why do we need to do sugar screening?

1. Currently, about 10% of pregnant women suffer from gestational diabetes, and the prevalence has been increasing rapidly.

2. Although a variety of reasons can lead to abnormal sugar metabolism, the human body usually may not show obvious symptoms, and even fasting blood sugar is normal, so it is ignored by many pregnant women.

3. Gestational diabetes has serious adverse effects on both pregnant women and fetuses:

(1) For pregnant women, this disease may cause hyperglycemia, hypertension, and other symptoms.

(2) For the fetus, it increases the risk of various diseases such as fetal miscarriage, intrauterine growth retardation, malformation, macrosomia, and low birth weight. It is also easy to cause a variety of neonatal complications, such as hyperbilirubinemia, respiratory distress syndrome, etc.

(4) It also affects the future life of pregnant women and fetuses, and they are at a greater risk of developing such diseases than ordinary people.