Once your baby is born, your blood sugar levels will likely return to normal, and you can stop taking any medication for gestational diabetes.
But although your blood sugar levels may have returned to normal (below 42mmol/mol), your risk of getting type 2 diabetes in the future (48 mmol/mol) is now 10 times higher.
In this article we'll discuss preventing type 2 diabetes after gestational diabetes, and some of the first things to do once your baby is born are to:
- Book a blood test 6-13 weeks after you give birth to check your blood sugar levels. And then book an annual blood test after that, as type 2 diabetes often doesn’t have any symptoms.
- Ask your GP to refer you to a type 2 prevention course or support, depending where you live.
- If you’re worried about asking for blood tests or prevention support, show the GP surgery our gestational diabetes traffic light tool (PDF, 340KB).
If your blood sugar levels are still high when they’re tested a few weeks after you give birth, you’ll be diagnosed with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, for which you should be offered support.
If your blood sugar levels have returned to normal, see our steps on reducing your risk of type 2 diabetes below.
Even if there is a history of type 2 diabetes in your family, making and maintaining healthy changes with the right support can help you keep your blood sugar levels in a normal range and prevent type 2 diabetes and the complications that can sometimes come with it.
Please note, if you’re struggling, remember to reach out to your GP, midwife or health visitor. Find out more on the NHS website. Your emotional health is your priority.
Tips to help you reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes
- Keep up some of the healthy habits you learned during pregnancy to help manage your blood sugar levels.
- Make sure you get your annual blood test to see if your blood sugar levels may be creeping up towards the prediabetic or type 2 ranges.
- Try and eat as healthily as you can. It can help you feel more energised and help manage blood sugar levels. See our healthy eating tips for lowering type 2 risk and healthier snacks pages, and try some of these tips when you’re ready.
- Use these small dietary changes to start to try to lose small amounts of any excess weight when your healthcare team say it’s safe to do so and you feel ready. Don’t try to lose weight too quickly, particularly if you’re breastfeeding. Even small amounts of weight loss can help reduce fat in and around your liver and pancreas and help manage your blood sugar levels.
- Try to do more physical activity each day to help your body become more responsive to insulin. Anything that gets you slightly out of breath is aerobic and can be particularly beneficial - such as hoovering or going up and down the stairs.
- Include your family in healthy eating and regular physical activity, making it something you can do together. Your child will have an increased risk of type 2 diabetes later in life, so getting into this way of life now can help lower their risk.
- If you’re a healthy weight for your height - known as your body mass index, or BMI - you can still develop prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. But doing a little more physical activity and making small changes to your diet has been shown to help lower your risk and improve overall health.
Making health changes is much easier with support. So don’t forget to ask your GP for a referral to a type 2 diabetes prevention course, or if that’s not available, ask for type 2 prevention advice and referrals to services needed such as weight loss support. See our section on this below. If you’re thinking of changing your diet, losing weight or trying a new physical activity, please speak to your GP first.
“Once you’ve had the baby, your focus goes away from your own health to keeping them healthy. But I realised it’s not selfish putting my health first because if I’m not healthy, it impacts on my children. It’s for them too. This was a bit of a shift for me.”
Sian, who experienced gestational diabetes in two of her pregnancies.
If you have had gestational diabetes you may develop it in other pregnancies, so in any future pregnancies please tell your GP or healthcare team straightaway so testing is offered early on.
Type 2 prevention courses or support
If you’ve had gestational diabetes, you should be offered a place on a type 2 prevention course if one is where you live. See what to expect in your part of the UK below:
If there isn’t a type 2 prevention course, your GP should let you know where to get type 2 prevention advice, and any available services, depending what you need, such as support with weight loss or physical activity.
England
If you’re in England, you can sign yourself up to the national online type 2 prevention course called Healthier You with other women who have had gestational diabetes. It runs over nine months. Find out more about the course and sign up.
If you prefer, ask your GP to refer you. You may sometimes hear the Healthier You course referred to as the National Diabetes Prevention Programme (NDPP).
You can even book your place during pregnancy, so you have something lined up for after the birth to support you in preventing type 2 diabetes.
Wales
If you’ve had gestational diabetes, ask your GP if the All Wales Prevention Programme is available in your area. If it is, ask for a referral. You should then be sent an appointment.
If the programme – which is a 30-minute consultation with a healthcare professional – isn’t available, ask your GP to signpost you to where to get help and advice for preventing type 2 diabetes and referrals to services you need help with.
Northern Ireland
If you’ve had gestational diabetes and are in Northern Ireland ask your GP to signpost you to type 2 prevention advice. Type 2 diabetes prevention courses aren’t yet offered to women who have had gestational diabetes, but do ask about referrals to other support and services.
Scotland
If you’re had gestational diabetes and are in Scotland, ask your GP about any type 2 prevention courses in your area. Some individual health boards have their own courses and a new national online course is on the way.
If there isn’t a course available, do ask your GP to signpost you to type 2 prevention advice and ask about referrals to other support and services.
There’s a free online course about preventing type 2 diabetes recommended by NHS Scotland – called T2D Prevention e-Learning, and additional information on eating well, losing weight, moving more and improving your diet.
How we can help
We’re here to advise and support you on preventing type 2 diabetes as well as your GP or healthcare team.
If there’s anything you’re not sure about or anything you want advice on, call us on 0345 123 2399 to speak to one of our trained advisors, or email us helpline@diabetes.org.uk. We are also here for partners, friends and family.
As well as being a listening ear, the kinds of things we can talk through with you are what a healthy diet is, how to make changes to your current diet and how to move more. We can also talk about weight and weight management.
You can also join our support forum.
Could I have prevented getting type 2 diabetes?
It may not always be possible to prevent type 2 diabetes.
If you are diagnosed with prediabetes (between 42-47mmol/mol) or type 2 diabetes (48mmol/mol or above) after gestational diabetes, don’t blame yourself. These conditions develop because of a mix of different factors that together increase your risk, and the exact mix is individual to you.
There’s a misconception that living with overweight or obesity alone causes type 2 diabetes. But that’s not the case, which is why people of a healthy weight can also be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
The care and support you need for type 2 diabetes is different to gestational diabetes and there are annual health checks you should be getting.
See our free guide What care to expect if you have type 2 diabetes in our online shop. If you have type 2 diabetes, you can get personal advice and videos guides on our free Learning Zone. You'll need to register first.
We’re funding research to better understand the link between gestational and type 2 diabetes - and how to break it.
