Reuters reports that a new study has linked a large number of birth defects to mothers who have type 1 or type 2 diabetes. The research found that diabetic women are three times as likely to have a baby with a birth defect than non-diabetic women.
A variety of different birth defects are associated with mothers who have type 1 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes, or type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease that is linked to obesity, the researchers said.
These included defects of the heart, brain, spine, limbs, kidneys and gastrointestinal tract, penile and ear abnormalities and cleft palate, the researchers wrote in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
"This study documents the fact that diabetes is associated with a wider range of defects than we had been aware of in the past," Dr. Adolfo Correa of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.
The study was pretty large comprising of 13,030 babies born with birth defects around the United States and 4,895 babies without birth defects. Other articles about the study can be found on WebMD, U.S. News and ABC2News.
