Continuous glucose monitoring in women with diabetes during pregnancy

The diagnosis and management of diabetes that presents during pregnancy has always been difficult. Women are usually asymptomatic and are not aware that the condition may occur for the first time during pregnancy. The prevalence varies from 1.4% to 14% depending on the population.1 Women who are first found to have abnormal glucose concentrations during pregnancy form a heterogeneous group, which includes women with unrecognised pre-existing type 2 diabetes and small numbers of women with unrecognised type 1 diabetes.2 Once the diagnosis of diabetes is established in a pregnant woman, blood glucose concentrations should be controlled to decrease the risk of maternal and neonatal complications.

The linked randomised controlled trial by Murphy and colleagues (doi:10.1136/bmj.a1680) compares the effects of standard antenatal care with and without continuous glucose monitoring in 71 women with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Continuous glucose monitoring was used as an educational tool to inform shared decision making and subsequent therapeutic changes at four to six week intervals during pregnancy.3

Most methods of monitoring glucose in pregnant women are the same as those used in non-pregnant patients with diabetes and …