Pre-Pregnancy Diabetes Linked to Higher Risk of Birth Defects

US News & World Report/HealthDay News: Pre-Pregnancy Diabetes Boosts Risk for Birth Defects:

Women who develop diabetes before they become pregnant are three to four times more likely than non-diabetic women to have a baby with at least one birth defect, says a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.

This is the first study to identify the wide range of birth defects -- such as heart defects, brain and spine defects, oral clefts, limb deficiencies, and defects of the kidneys and gastrointestinal tract -- associated with pre-pregnancy diagnoses of type 1 or type 2 diabetes.