How 500 Irish women are helping find links between diet and gestational diabetes

The research already has 'extremely exciting findings'.

The National Maternity Hospital has announced the opening of a new perinatal research centre in partnership with the University College Dublin and the continuation of some very interesting research projects. UCD’s Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Fionnuala McAuliffe, will lead the new research centre and help coordinate ongoing studies, including the Pregnancy Exercise and Nutrition Study with Smartphone Application Support. Over 500 women are currently taking part in the study which examines how a low GI diet and increased amounts of exercise impacts gestational diabetes in pregnant women who fall in the overweight and obese categories. “The initial results have found that this intervention package reduced the incidence of babies born large, for gestational age, which is an extremely exciting finding,” Professor McAuliffe said of the study.   Gestational diabetes develops in women during pregnancy because they are not able to produce enough insulin. The resulting high blood sugar levels in the mother’s body are then passed on to the baby and can cause health problems for the child. The new research centre aims to “improve the long-term health of mums and their babies” through collaborative research with UCD. The new partnership is intended to help develop research projects into national health challenges and provide more access to the latest research. The research that is to take part in the new UCD Perinatal Research Centre will be funded by grants from the Health Research Board Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland, the EU and the National Maternity Hospital Medical Fund.