Nutrition Counseling For Women With Gestational Diabetes

Winthrop-University Hospital's nationally renowned Diabetes Education Center received a $5,000 grant from the Long Island Fund for Women and Girls to support a new, free-of-charge, telephone-based nutrition education program for women with recent gestational diabetes - a form of diabetes that some women develop during pregnancy.

Scheduled to begin in the spring, the program focuses on helping women with recent gestational diabetes prevent or delay the development of type 2 diabetes - the most common form of diabetes affecting nearly 21 million American adults and children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the incidence of diabetes is rising markedly; from 1997 through 2004, the number of new cases of diagnosed diabetes increased by 54 percent.

Gestational diabetes, one of the most common complications of pregnancy, affects four to eight percent of all pregnant women. About 135,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with gestational diabetes each year. In New York, the incidence has increased by 50 percent over the past 10 years. Even though the disease usually resolves at the conclusion of the pregnancy, women who have had gestational diabetes have a 45 to 65 percent chance of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.

"There is strong scientific evidence that weight loss and exercise can preserve the function of insulin-producing cells in women with recent gestational diabetes," explained Virginia Peragallo-Dittko, APRN, BC-ADM, MA, CDE, Director of the Diabetes Education Center at Winthrop. "This grant will enable us to develop a unique program - the first of its kind on Long Island."

"When a new baby arrives, sleep deprivation and new responsibilities leave mothers with little time and energy to meet their own needs," said Ms. Peragallo-Dittko. "Many have limited access to postpartum nutrition counseling because of lack of transportation, childcare concerns and lack of insurance reimbursement for prevention of disease. By reaching them at home through telephone-based counseling, we will be able to develop, implement and reinforce personalized plans to promote health, good nutrition and weight management - all of which are crucial to preventing or delaying the development of type 2 diabetes."

The grant will support training of the Center's Certified Diabetes Educators in specialized telephone counseling techniques, and help them develop teaching tools that can be mailed to the patients for use during the telephone sessions.

The program's nutritional counseling will address foods relevant to each patient's cultural background. Additionally, non-English-speaking patients will be counseled through the use of Winthrop's live, telephone-based CyraCom language translation service, which provides medical interpreters for 150 languages and is designed to allow continuous, ongoing communication between two people through an interpreter.

For nearly 30 years, the Diabetes Education Center at Winthrop has provided superior education and community outreach programs for those living with and managing diabetes. It was the first program in New York State accredited by the American Diabetes Association and continues to receive recognition for improving the lives of its clients.

The Long Island Fund for Women and Girls was established in 1991 to fund programs that improve the lives of women and girls, highlight and address women's issues, and develop women's philanthropy.

For more information about the Telephone-Based Nutrition Education Program for women with recent gestational diabetes, call Winthrop's Diabetes Education Center at (516) 663-2350.