ABSTRACT
Pregnancy is a challenge and an opportunity for the woman with diabetes. In providing the environment that leads to the best pregnancy outcome, the diabetic woman develops the knowledge and skills to protect herself from long-term complications and extend her lifespan. Diabetes is one of the most common medical complications of pregnancy, affecting 5 percent of all pregnancies in one of its forms. Diabetes mellitus is a heterogeneous condition with two basic pathophysiologies, each giving rise to hyperglycemia and the potential for complicated end-organ dysfunction. The endocrinologic changes of pregnancy are almost uniformly antagonistic to the action of insulin. Effect of high levels of human placental lactogen is the propensity toward accelerated starvation in the metabolic millieu of pregnancy. The diabetic complication is an extremely common cause of blindness due to proliferative vascular disease with hemorrhage in the retina and vitreous.
