(with thanks to Jackeline Alger, lead moderator of HIFA-Spanish)
14 November 2025 News release
https://www.who.int/news/item/14-11-2025-who-launches-global-guidelines-...
EXTRACTS
'The World Health Organization (WHO) today released its first global guidelines for the management of diabetes during pregnancy, a condition affecting about one in six pregnancies – or 21 million women annually. The new recommendations provide a critical roadmap to tackle this growing health challenge and prevent serious complications for both women and their children.
'Diabetes in pregnancy, if not managed effectively, significantly increases the risk of life-threatening conditions such as pre-eclampsia, stillbirth, and birth injuries. It also has long-term consequences, elevating the lifetime risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic diseases for both mother and child. The burden is greatest in low- and middle-income countries, where access to specialized care and resources may be limited, yet the need is most acute.
“WHO has long had guidance on diabetes and guidance on pregnancy, but this is the first time we have issued a specific standard of care for managing diabetes during pregnancy,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “These guidelines are grounded in the realities of women’s lives and health needs, and provide clear, evidence-based strategies to deliver high-quality care for every woman, everywhere.”...
'Diabetes is one of the fastest-growing health challenges of our time, affecting over 800 million people globally. It is a leading cause of heart disease, kidney failure, blindness, and lower-limb amputation, and its impact stretches across generations and health systems. Over the last decades, the prevalence has been rising the most in low- and middle-income countries, where access to care and essential medicines remains limited.'
FULL TEXT: The first two recommendations are:
1. For pregnant women with type 1, type 2 or gestational diabetes, provide individualized advice on diet, physical activity and weight management based on existing WHO guidance, including:
• dietary advice for the general adult population;
• physical activity advice for the general pregnant population;
• weight management advice based on the above dietary and physical activity advice, with a focus on appropriate gestational weight gain.
Advice on diet, physical activity and weight management: For pregnant women with type 1, type 2 or gestational diabetes, provide education on:
2. For pregnant women with type 1, type 2 or gestational diabetes, provide education on:
• the effects of diabetes in pregnancy on maternal, fetal, newborn and child health outcomes;
• diet and physical activity;
• appropriate gestational weight gain;
• managing glycaemia;
• the need for additional monitoring of fetal growth and wellbeing.
COMMENT (NPW): The above two recommendations emphasise the importance of maternal knowledge as well as health worker knowledge. As a general comment, WHO clinical guidelines are arguably the most important type of publication produced by WHO, which is uniquely positioned to serve this role. And yet there remains a huge gap between what is known in terms of cumulative evidence from robust research and what is known by individual health workers and therefore implemented (or not implemented) in practice. It would be valuable to get some sense of the quality of care currently being provided to pregnant women with diabetes in different settings, and how better to meet information needs for all, including health workers and families. I would be interested to learn of any research on healthcare knowledge and quality of care for diabetes in pregnancy.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org