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One of the many roles of an obstetrician gynecologist (OBGYN) is to help pregnant women stay healthy during pregnancy. If you developed gestational diabetes during your pregnancy, but your caregiver failed to diagnose it, you may be able to sue. Here are four things you should know about this.

What Is Gestational Diabetes?

Gestational diabetes is a form of diabetes that occurs only during pregnancy. It affects a woman's body in ways that are similar to other forms of diabetes, and the main issue it causes is problems creating insulin. Having this condition during pregnancy can be extremely serious, and it can be fatal.

It is an OBGYN's responsibility to know what your risks are during your pregnancy, and to follow through by monitoring and testing you for all types of pregnancy-related issues. Failing to do this can lead to undiagnosed problems, which is an issue that falls into medical malpractice.

What Should a Doctor Do To Detect Conditions Like This?

There are a number of routine procedures that are completed during every pregnancy, and requiring women to take a gestational diabetes test is one of them. In addition to testing women for this, doctors also ask women questions that help them find out if their risks are higher for this particular condition. Women are at a higher risk for developing gestational diabetes if they meet one or more of the following conditions:

• If you are over the age of 25
• If you already have diabetes
• If diabetes runs in your family
• If you are African American, Asian, or Hispanic

Whether you meet any of these factors or not, your doctor should order you to complete a test for this condition. This test is given to women when they are around 24 to 28 weeks into their pregnancies, and it involves drinking a beverage that contains a lot of glucose.

Around one hour after drinking it, the woman's blood is drawn and tested to determine what her glucose level is. According to WebMD, if the reading comes back at 130mg/dL or higher, your doctor will monitor you closely for gestational diabetes. This may involve taking additional tests or monitoring your blood glucose levels daily. You may even have to take insulin to control your blood glucose levels for the rest of your pregnancy.

What Problems a Lack of Diagnosis Results In?

If you had gestational diabetes during your pregnancy and your doctor did not catch it, you may have suffered from this in many ways, because gestational diabetes can cause:

• Preeclampsia – This is a condition that causes problems with the placenta.
• Hypertension – This is also known as high blood pressure, which is a condition that should be treated during pregnancy to avoid other health problems.
• Premature baby – Not diagnosing you with this could have also caused health issues with your baby, which includes having a baby born early.
• Death – In some cases, women lose their babies because of this, and there are times when the mothers themselves die.

If you have suffered in any way because of a failure to diagnose this problem, contact a lawyer.

What Will a Lawyer Do?

When you hire a personal injury lawyer for help, he or she will primarily want to know three things:

1. Do you have proof the doctor did something wrong?
2. Did you suffer from the wrongdoing?
3. To what extent are your damages?

Your lawyer will proceed with filing a case if there is proof of your claim and if you suffered damages from it. To learn more about this, contact a personal injury lawyer that specializes in medical malpractice cases, such as Jon D. Caminez, PA.