Across England's maternity wards, a condition once considered relatively uncommon has quietly become a defining feature of modern pregnancy: one in eight mothers now receives a gestational diabetes diagnosis, a sixty percent rise recorded between 2018 and 2022. Driven by later childbearing, rising obesity rates, and sharper screening tools, the surge falls hardest on Asian women and those in economically deprived communities, exposing deep inequalities in how pregnancy unfolds depending on circumstance and identity. The condition does not end at birth — it casts a long metabolic shadow over bo
Gestational diabetes diagnoses surge 60% in England, affecting 1 in 8 mothers
Gestational diabetes increases risks of preterm birth, emergency Caesarean sections, and babies born with abnormal sizes, with disproportionate impact on ethnic minority and economically disadvantaged mothers.