Since 2014, the proportion of women with gestational diabetes has been increasing (8.3% in 2014 compared with 13.5% in 2019).
In 2019, older mothers were more likely to have gestational diabetes (17.8% among mothers aged 40 and over compared with 5.0% for those aged under 20) or pre-existing diabetes (including types 1 and type 2 diabetes) (1.7% among mothers aged 40 and over compared with 0.4% for those aged under 20).
Pre-existing and gestational diabetes increased with the number of previous pregnancies (for example, from 11% among mothers with no previous pregnancies to 15% among mothers with four or more previous pregnancies). However, this pattern may be affected by maternal age, as women who have had more pregnancies are likely to be older on average than those with fewer pregnancies.
Hypertension
Hypertension is a leading cause of illness and death for mothers and babies (Queensland Clinical Guidelines 2015). Complications of hypertension that can affect the mother include cerebral injury, liver and kidney failure and those which can affect the baby include being born pre-term, being small for gestational age and being admitted to the special care nursery (Queensland Clinical Guidelines 2015).