Enhancing postnatal care of women with gestational diabetes

Vounzoulaki and colleagues’ finding that women with a history of gestational diabetes are almost 10 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes starkly underscores the importance of providing ongoing postnatal support to this high risk group.1 Postnatal and annual HbA1c screening alone, however, is unlikely to achieve reduction in the risk of incident type 2 diabetes without access to interventions that support sustained lifestyle change in this population. There is currently a dearth of evidence regarding optimal timing, content, intensity, and effectiveness of lifestyle change interventions in women who have had gestational diabetes.