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At your first pregnancy booking appointment, your community midwife will ask some questions to find out if you have a higher risk of getting diabetes in pregnancy (gestational diabetes).
If you have one or more ‘risk factors’, you will be offered a screening test called an ‘oral glucose tolerance test’. This takes around 2 hours. It involves a fasting blood test in the morning followed by a glucose drink. Fasting means you should not eat or drink before the blood test. After 2 hours of resting, you will have a second blood test. This will see how your body responds to glucose.
This test is usually completed between 24 to 28 weeks gestation. It can be done earlier, soon after your booking appointment, if for example you have had diabetes before. In this case, the test would be done again at 24 to 28 weeks if the first test was normal. Depending on where you live, the GTT may take place at hospital, in a children’s (Sure Start) centre or at your doctor’s surgery. Your midwife will discuss this with you and will book this for you if recommended.
