Diabetes During Pregnancy 

Women of Color At Increased Risk 

By Kauthar B. Umar, MA


Closing the Gap, Diabetes • September/October 2002


The pregnancy test is positive. The ultrasound eliminates all of 

your worries. Ten fingers, ten toes. With this comes the anticipation of motherhood. Sorting through names and picking furniture for the nursery becomes your most enjoyable past time. 

Yet, for some women—particularly women of color—an uneventful 

pregnancy can suddenly come to screeching halt. An often routinely 

performed blood test at about six months can confirm the presence of 

high blood sugar or gestational diabetes (GD). 

Throughout the United States, especially among minority 

women, gestational diabetes is one of the most important health concerns related to pregnancy—yet one that far too many women know 

little about. 

GD is a type of diabetes that only pregnant women get. Approximately seven percent of all pregnancies are complicated by GD— 

resulting in more than 200,000 cases annually. 

Nationally, GD occurs more frequently among African Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, and American Indians. However, 

some local studies indicate that GD is extremely high in some Asian 

American communities. After pregnancy, 5 to 10 percent of women 

with GD are found to have type 2 diabetes. Women who have had 

GD have a 20 to 50 percent chance of developing diabetes within 5 

to 10 years following pregnancy. 

Throughout a pregnancy, GD requires treatment to normalize 

maternal blood sugar levels to avoid complications both to the mother 

and child. Women who go untreated may have a harder time with 

labor, and GD increases their chance of delivering surgically. Complications that can arise in infants include: jaundice, hypoglycemia or 

low blood sugar level, and respiratory distress syndrome which makes 

it hard for them to breathe. 

High-Risk Ethnic Groups 

Women who are overweight or obese, over age 25, have a family 

history of diabetes or has had gestational diabetes with a past pregnancy, and those who’ve had a very large baby or stillbirth in the past 

are at risk for GD. Likewise, it has been determined that some women 

of color have a higher incidence of developing diabetes during pregnancy. More specifically: 

3⁄4 African American. Like type 2 diabetes, GD occurs more often 

in women of color, resulting in high cases of GD among African 

Americans. In fact, according to the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Disease (NIDDK), several studies 

have shown that the occurrence of GD in African American 

women may be 50 to 80 percent more frequent than in White 

women. 

3⁄4 American Indian and Alaska Natives. Both long- and shortterm consequences of diabetes during pregnancy are evident in 

American Indians and Alaska Natives. Congenital abnormalities 

in infants born to women with type 2 diabetes are as common as 

those observed in women with type 1 diabetes. Other complications seen in pregnancies in women with type 2 diabetes included increased rates of toxemia or pregnancy induced hypertension and perinatal mortality. 

In fact, 45 percent of adult offspring of Pima Indian women 

who were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes predating pregnancy 

developed diabetes by age 20 to 24. In comparison, only 1.4 

percent of adult offspring of women without diabetes during 

pregnancy went on to develop diabetes by age 24. The strongest 

single risk factor for diabetes in Pima children was exposure to 

diabetes in utero. 

Follow up studies of American Indian women with gestational diabetes found a high risk of developing subsequent diabetes: 27.5 percent of Pima Indian women developed diabetes 

within 4 to 8 years, and 30 percent of Zuni Indians developed 

diabetes within 6 months to 9 years after pregnancy. 

3⁄4 Asian American and Pacific Islanders. According to NIDDK, 

nationally, Asian American women seem to have rates of gestational diabetes that are similar to those of White women in the 

United States. However, statistics based on an unpublished study 

conducted by Northern California Kaiser Permanente patients 

indicates that the prevalence of GD among Asian Americans was 

almost double the prevalence of GD among White women. 

3⁄4 Hispanic/Latinos. Mexican American women may be at particularly high risk for developing type 2 diabetes. One study of 

666 women with gestational diabetes in southern California 

found that each year an average of 12 percent developed type 2 

diabetes after pregnancy. Mexican American women, especially 

when they are overweight, have higher rates of gestational diabetes than White women. It has also been estimated that within 20 

years of pregnancy, about half of the Latino women with gestational diabetes develop type 2 diabetes. 

For more information, visit the National Institute of Child Health 

& Human Development Web site at http://www.nichd.nih.gov

Office of Minority Health Resource Center	 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services