Women with diabetes warned London - Arabstoday Women who have diabetes are almost four times more likely to have a baby with a birth defect, research reveals. One out of 13 mothers-to-be with either Type 1 or Type 2 of the disease on giving birth have a child with a major congenital abnormality as a direct result of their condition. Overall for such women, the risk of having a child with a birth defect of whatever kind is 7%, according to the journal Diabetologia. The risk of having a baby who has a birth defect is 2% in females without diabetes. Researchers led by Ruth Bell from Newcastle University reached their conclusions after studying 401,149 single-baby pregnancies between 1996 and 2008 in the north of England, 1,677 of them pregnancies of diabetics. Diabetic women from poorer backgrounds, or who did not take folic acid, were at higher risk, they found. Iain Frame, the research director at Diabetes UK, which funded the study, said it had identified that the mother's blood glucose level at time of conception was related to her risk of having a baby with a birth defect, such as a heart abnormality. Diabetic women considering becoming pregnant should alert their medical team so that steps can be taken to minimise the risk. In addition, women who are diabetic should make sure to use contraception so that they do not become pregnant unexpectedly, Frame said. This is because some drugs taken by Type 2 diabetics – 90% of the UK's 2.9 million patients diagnosed with the disease – can cause problems for a developing foetus, and in such cases the women need to take higher than usual doses of folic acid, he said. "Although it has been known for some time that maternal diabetes is associated with an increased risk of foetal anomalies, this study has, for the first time, quantified the relative risk," said Justin Warner clinical lead for the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit, which is led by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. "This highlights the importance of good diabetes control in mothers at the time of conception and the need for careful diabetes monitoring if pregnancy is being considered." Young women with diabetes need to be educated about the risk of having a child with an abnormality if they become pregnant, he said. NHS staff should try to stabilise the health of diabetics who may become pregnant, and reduce the risk of birth defects by using insulin pump therapy and continuous monitoring of glucose levels, the authors suggest. Such women do get offered specialist preconception care, "but uptake remains low, and women from ethnic minority groups, socially deprived areas, and with Type 2 diabetes are less likely to attend", the study says. A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "We know that diabetes brings increased risk of complications during pregnancy and that the best way to avoid the complications is through good planning and making sure that the diabetes is well controlled before and during pregnancy." The Change4Life campaign was encouraging people to adopt healthier lifestyles, which would help prevent diseases such as diabetes in the first place, she added.