Babies whose mothers have diabetes have five times the normal risk of suffering from congenital heart problems, British doctors said.
Researchers at Sunderland Royal Hospital in northern England uncovered:
Nearly four percent of babies born to diabetic mothers had congenital heart problems such as transposed arteries, compared to less than one percent in infants of mothers without the disease.
Pre-existing maternal diabetes is associated with a fivefold increase in risk of cardio-vascular malformation, – Ginny Birrell, a pediatrician at the hospital said in a report in the journal Heart.
She and her colleagues recommended that all pregnant women with diabetes be offered special monitoring of their unborn child to pick up any heart problems.
Reuters