Gestational Diabetes News and Research

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Gestational diabetes is diabetes that is found for the first time when a woman is pregnant. Out of every 100 pregnant women in the United States, three to eight get gestational diabetes. Diabetes means that your blood glucose (also called blood sugar) is too high. Your body uses glucose for energy. But too much glucose in your blood can be harmful. When you are pregnant, too much glucose is not good for your baby.

Gut microbial metabolites may reshape fat tissue through Wnt pathways

Fat tissue grows in two ways: existing fat cells swell, or progenitor cells spawn new fat cells. When new-cell formation falls behind long-term energy surplus, lipids pile up inside aging fat cells-bringing inflammation, insulin resistance, and fat deposits in the liver and muscle.

11 Nov 2026

Red meat and ultra-processed foods show no clear link to postpartum depression in new study

A prospective cohort study of 264 pregnant Iranian women found no statistically significant association between maternal consumption of ultra-processed foods or red meat and probable postpartum depression assessed four to six weeks after childbirth. However, the relatively small sample size and imprecise estimates mean that potentially meaningful associations cannot be excluded, highlighting the need for larger studies.

8 Nov 2026

Can pregnancy leave a lasting mark on biological aging?

A review examines how pregnancy spacing affects maternal aging, proposing that insufficient recovery may lead to cumulative biological aging and health risks.

3 Nov 2026

High-fat diets in mouse parents alter offspring brain development

Researchers fed breeding pairs of mice five diets with different fat and sugar contents to examine how parental nutrition affects offspring brain development. High-fat diets, alone or combined with high sugar, delayed early motor development and altered brain structure in young adult offspring, while the high-sugar-only diet produced no significant changes in individual brain regions after correction for multiple comparisons.

28 Oct 2026

Low vitamin B12 is linked to heart disease. Supplements tell a different story

A narrative review published in Nutrition Journal examines how vitamin B12 deficiency may contribute to cardiovascular disease through elevated homocysteine, endothelial dysfunction, oxidative stress and altered methylation. The authors found that B12 supplementation has not consistently prevented heart attacks or cardiovascular deaths in clinical trials, although combined B-vitamin therapy may modestly reduce stroke risk, particularly in populations without folic acid fortification.

27 Oct 2026

Medical societies release landmark framework redefining women's heart health

Today, the American Heart Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine released a landmark publication that redefines heart health in girls and women.

26 Oct 2026

New report urges unified lifecycle approach to women's heart health

A new approach to women's heart health may offer them a lifetime of opportunities. A trio of scientific papers, published today in the journal Circulation, spells out how fluctuating hormones, mental health and well-being, the heart and the brain are linked and how those connections need to be a routine part of care from a young age.

26 Oct 2026

New guidance expands reproductive care for people with cystic fibrosis

For much of the history of cystic fibrosis (CF) care, reproductive health was not a major part of the conversation. Fertility challenges were the norm for men and women with this genetic disorder, and many grew up assuming biological parenthood was not possible.

23 Oct 2026

Coffee, citrus and genetics: What scientists found inside human breast milk

In a bioRxiv preprint, researchers analyzed 458 metabolites in breast milk samples from 349 mothers to investigate how maternal diet, genetics, clinical characteristics, and milk-cell gene expression relate to milk composition. Maternal diet explained the greatest share of metabolite variation among the measured maternal factors, while specific genetic variants and gene-expression patterns were associated with individual metabolites, although the study did not establish effects on infant health.

14 Oct 2026

Metformin in pregnancy does not raise developmental risk in children

Metformin use during pregnancy shows no link to developmental problems at school entry.

7 Oct 2026

Study links pregnancy complications to future heart and kidney disease

Women with a complication in the latest pregnancy, or in a previous pregnancy, face an elevated risk of developing cardiometabolic-renal conditions in subsequent years, suggests a UK study published online in the open access journal BMJ Medicine.

6 Oct 2026

Patient navigators significantly improve postpartum care for low-income mothers

While the transition to motherhood can be challenging for anyone, barriers such as inadequate health literacy, unreliable transportation, navigating a complex health care system, limited access to childcare or insecure housing can be the tipping point between a new mom accessing needed care or going without it.

5 Oct 2026

Five lipids revealed a divide between active and inactive pregnancies

Staying active during pregnancy is linked to changes in DHA-rich placental lipids

5 Oct 2026

Postpartum GLP-1 prescriptions rise sharply among U.S. women

More U.S. women are being prescribed GLP-1 medications after giving birth, particularly those diagnosed with diabetes, according to new research from the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics.

1 Oct 2026

GLP-1 receptor agonist exposure shows no link to major adverse pregnancy outcomes

New research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of The European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Milan, Italy (Sept 28 – Oct 2) and published in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Women's Health shows that, following a review and meta-analysis of available studies, use of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RA) drugs for diabetes and weight management in women living with diabetes is not associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes in most cases.

1 Oct 2026

Uterus transplantation shows improving outcomes and successful births nationwide

A decade of uterus transplantation in the United States has resulted in dozens of healthy births and steadily improving surgical outcomes, according to a new national review led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

24 Sep 2026

Study explores pregnancy risks from heat and wildfire smoke

Wildfire smoke and extreme heat – increasingly the new norm – each have their own harmful effects on pregnant people and babies, including preterm birth and low birthweight.

15 Sep 2026

Tirzepatide vs semaglutide for asthma: the difference was smaller than researchers expected

In a US multicenter electronic health record study, researchers compared tirzepatide with semaglutide in adults with asthma and type 2 diabetes, matching 8,176 patients in each treatment group. Asthma exacerbation risk was similar between treatments, while tirzepatide was associated with a lower likelihood of receiving a short-acting beta-agonist prescription.

14 Sep 2026

The link between fish and pregnancy hypertension may start before conception

In a nationwide Japanese cohort of more than 86,000 women, higher fish intake before pregnancy was associated with lower odds of early-onset hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, while fish intake during pregnancy showed different associations with late-onset disease, particularly among women who had not previously given birth. Total dietary omega-3 and omega-6 PUFA intake showed much less consistent associations, suggesting that the relationship with fish consumption may not be explained by total PUFA intake alone.

9 Sep 2026

What mothers eat in pregnancy may shape a child’s weight years later

A prospective study of 252 mother-child pairs found that higher combined maternal fruit and vegetable intake during pregnancy was associated with lower odds of overweight or obesity in children at age four. Total and natural fruit juice showed no association, whereas higher commercial fruit juice intake was associated with increased odds, though the authors emphasized that this finding was exploratory.

7 Sep 2026