Diagnosis of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: It Is Time for International Consensus

Gestational diabetesmellitus (GDM)2 has been defined as any degree of glucose intolerance with an onset or first recognition during pregnancy (1–3). Fetal com-plications of GDM include macrosomia (large baby, which leads to birth injuries), shoulder dystocia, and neonatal hypoglycemia, and adverse outcomes for the mother are an increased risk of cesarean delivery, pre-eclampsia, and hypertension during pregnancy, as well as a significantly higher risk of subsequent type 2 dia-betes. Treating women with GDM reduces at least some of the adverse outcomes (4). Estimates of the prevalence of GDM range from 1 % to 28%, reflect-ing the different diagnostic criteria and populations studied. The increasing prevalence of GDM in theUS is congruentwith themarked increase in obesity and type