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Diabetes in pregnancy or gestational diabetes is a condition in pregnancy where your blood sugar levels become abnormally high in pregnancy. About 3-10% of pregnant women in the United States get diagnosed with gestational diabetes each year. Diabetes, if not promptly and properly managed, can result in complications for both mother and child.
Diabetes in pregnancy increases the risk for gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and having a cesarean section. In the baby, uncontrolled gestational diabetes can result in macrosomia, preterm birth, hypoglycemia, jaundice, birth asphyxia, and stillbirth. While gestational diabetes goes away after pregnancy, it increases your risk of developing diabetes later in life and your baby's.
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The Covid-19 pandemic led to an increased burden on the healthcare system and scarcity of human and material resources. Health facilities were overworked with caring for patients with emergency and/or critical cases, including Covid-19, pulling all their weight to stop the spread of and deaths caused by the Covid-19 infection.
Consequently, non-emergency health services including prenatal care were almost unavailable and inaccessible. There were social and physical restrictions declared by governments to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Additionally, pregnant women avoided hospitals to reduce the risk of catching the virus.
Prenatal care is an essential preventive health service that impacts local, national, and international populations. Lower rates of maternal mortality and morbidity translate to positive growth and development of any country. In the United States alone, 4 million women access prenatal care each year. That's a huge number.
Telemedicine, a new but not new model of healthcare delivery emerged to connect pregnant women and healthcare providers. Studies have recorded positive outcomes from the use of telemedicine in prenatal care. Despite the lack of direct contact with their caregivers, women with diabetes in pregnancy have been proven to benefit from this approach of healthcare delivery.
It may seem that telemedicine has become a mainstay in the health system despite the loosening of the lockdown regulations. Healthcare facilities, providers, and patients have continued to utilize telemedicine as a cost-effective and convenient means of accessing and delivering care.
Telemedicine is a virtual, online version of the conventional approach to healthcare delivery. In other words, patients can connect with their caregivers using a smart device and web connection via videoconferencing, emails, text messages, and audio calls. Monitoring is also automatic or digital, with the use of devices in the immediate environment of the patient. These devices measure and record several health data.
Diabetes in pregnancy requires increased and consistent clinic visits and monitoring. Women with pregnancy complicated by diabetes get more antenatal appointments with their general physician, obstetrician, and dietitians, among others. Multiple visits translate to increased cost from care, absences from work, transport, and babysitting leading to little to no compliance by patients and resultant negative maternal-fetal outcomes.
Additionally, managing diabetes is time-consuming, requiring time to examine, educate, adjust to new lifestyle modifications of exercise, diet, routine monitoring of blood sugar levels, medications, and insulin injections. Hence, telemedicine comes as a reprieve to several time and cost-related issues in the management of diabetes.
ICT helps providers connect with their patients remotely from home or work. Virtual appointments can meet the needs of more patients and enhances the team approach in the management of diabetes by involving the patients themselves, their local doctors, obstetricians, nurses, and dietitians.
With telemedicine, patients could monitor their blood glucose levels, perform fetal movement counting, and record insulin doses and episodes of hypoglycemia. Furthermore, the quick transmission of patients' health data facilitates early detection and management of conditions associated with gestational diabetes. High-risk cases can be promptly detected, preventing complications in both mother and child, including the need for a cesarean section.
Several studies have proven that the above-stated roles of telemedicine have yielded benefits to both patients and their healthcare providers. In patients, telemedicine effectively reduced blood sugar levels as well as the risk for maternal and fetal/neonatal complications, compared to standard care. Additionally, increased patient participation led to increased positive health outcomes, behavioral outcomes, self-efficacy, patient satisfaction, and quality of life in patients.
Are you an expecting mother diagnosed with diabetes in pregnancy? At My Virtual Physician we bridge the gap while you await an appointment with your OB doctor. We are available to help guide you through your pregnancy and answer any questions that may arise.
We are in network with many insurance health plans including Medicaid, Medicare, United HealthCare, and Blue Cross.
