Maternal Diabetes, Respiratory and other Disorders in Offspring: Shortterm and Long-term Outcomes

Abstract: Maternal diabetes during pregnancy, regardless of the type, is a risk factor for macro-somia or excessive fetal growth. Macrosomia and subsequent complications are the main short-term consequences of intrauterine exposure to gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Additionally, they have an increased risk of neonatal complications, such as congenital heart defects (CHDs) and cen-tral nervous system (CNS) congenital birth defects, hyperbilirubinemia, hypoglycemia, hypocalce-mia, and polycythemia with their subsequent complications. More and more indisputable data are evidencing long-term consequences on offspring health in the case of diabetes. While most of this research has focused on metabolic and cardiovascular consequences, there is a growing body of ev-idence suggesting an impact of maternal diabetes on respiratory health, which is influenced by in-trinsic and extrinsic environmental factors during fetal and postnatal development, with important implications for respiratory disorders in later life.