DiGest Newborn Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Glucose Control and metabolic adaptation in offspring of women with Gestational Diabetes recruited to the DiGest Study.
IRAS ID
258245
Contact name
Kathryn Beardsall
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and University of Cambridge
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Low blood sugar levels are a risk for newborn babies following pregnancies complicated with diabetes (when a mother's blood sugars are difficult to control), as low sugars can cause brain damage. If babies have low sugars, they may be separated from their mothers and given additional feeds or fluids. A baby’s blood sugar is related to both long term sugar control in pregnancy and control around the time of birth with risks also related to the ability of babies to use other sources of energy.
We want to learn more about whether it is early pregnancy sugar control or sugar control around delivery that leads to low sugars in babies. However, we normally only check a baby's blood sugars a few times after birth. There are however new ways of measuring sugar levels continuously that can give more information about glucose levels over a prolonged time. We want to use these devices to study glucose levels in babies after birth as part of a study of women with diabetes in pregnancy. We also want to measure alternative sources of energy that babies may use when their sugar levels are low by collecting blood spots when they have their blood sugar levels checked. This will provide important information about the patterns of both mothers and their baby's sugar control around the time of birth.REC name
East of England - Cambridge East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/EE/0251
Date of REC Opinion
17 Dec 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion