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The most important known metabolic complication of the newborns from diabetic mothers, including diabetes type 1 and 2 and gestational diabetes, is the postnatal hypoglycemia.
If unrecognized and undiagnosed, hypoglycemia in this particular high-risk group can determine severe neurological lesions and even death, in a significantly higher proportion than those from the general population.
The present paper brings arguments for the crucial importance of screening for post-natal hypoglycemia in the early hours after birth, and discusses the management strategies and the topics that still remain in debate. Newborns from diabetic mothers, including diabetes type 1 and 2 and gestational diabetes, represent the group with the highest risk of developing symptomatic hypoglycemia in the immediate hours after birth.
This metabolic risk is believed to be due to the relative fetal hyperinsulinism, manifested as a feedback mechanism for the balance of the high glucose levels induced by the maternal diabetes, and is particularly severe in those cases of poorly controlled maternal pre-existent diabetes with high levels of HbA1c [ 1 , 2 ].
