ABSTRACT
The emerging epidemic of obesity with its resulting effects on risk of adult diabetes and metabolic abnormalities, cardiovascular disease, and some forms of cancer is not only due to the adoption of a Western lifestyle. But also in part due to the intrauterine environment and other environmental factors early in life. Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in the mother is associated with a range of effects on the offspring. Fetuses of women with GDM develop insulin resistance in utero, but mainly in the case of maternal obesity. An increased weight gain during pregnancy has been shown to be related to fetal macrosomia at birth in women with type 1 diabetes. Being large for gestational age at birth is a risk factor for childhood obesity both in offspring of women with diabetes and in nondiabetic populations. This may be due to epigenetic changes induced by an abnormal intrauterine environment, by genetic differences or altered nutrition and activity pattern during childhood.
