This is general information based on published guidance and isn’t a substitute for advice from your midwife or GP. If you’re worried about yourself or your baby, contact your midwife, GP, or maternity unit – don’t wait.
Alex Cooper is opening up about a new twist in her pregnancy journey. The 31-year-old Call Her Daddy host, who announced in May that she and husband Matt Kaplan are expecting their first child, shared in a July 30 Instagram video that she’s been diagnoses with gestational diabetes.
In an Instagram video posted July 30, the Call Her Daddy host said she almost cried when she got the news. She said the first few days after the diagnosis felt isolating, even surrounded by her husband Matt Kaplan and her family. She said her instinct wasn’t panic about herself – it was “I want my baby to be okay.” Then she said the part that millions of women needed to hear: this can happen to anyone, at any weight, on any diet, with any fitness level.
She’s right. And the fact that she said it out loud, mid-pregnancy, is a gift to women everywhere who are facing – and will face – GD in their pregnancy.
What’s actually happening in the body
During pregnancy, the placenta makes hormones that help your baby grow. As NHS guidance explains, side effect of those hormones is that they make it harder for your body to use insulin, which is the hormone that normally moves sugar out of your blood and into your cells for energy.
To keep up, your pancreas has to produce more insulin than usual. For most people, it does. For some, it can’t keep pace, and blood sugar starts to rise. That’s gestational diabetes. It’s your hormones outpacing your insulin supply – not anything you did wrong.
It shows up in the second half of pregnancy, which is why the standard screening starts at around 24 to 28 weeks.
Want more of the latest celeb news and motherhood updates direct to your inbox? Subscribe to Birthbabe Magazine.
It’s not a verdict on how you live
This is the line Cooper made clear to her followers, and it’s the one worth underlining: nothing you ate, skipped, or didn’t do caused this.
Certain things do shift the odds according to the RCOG, such as being over 25, a family history of type 2 diabetes, GD in a prior pregnancy, carrying multiples, PCOS, and higher documented rates among Black, Hispanic, Native American, and Asian American women. But plenty of diagnoses land on people with none of those factors.
That’s precisely why every pregnant person gets screened, not just the ones who might be at higher risk.
How it’s confirmed
A glucose challenge test is the first assessment. This involves drinking a very sweet drink and blood being drawn an hour later. If that number runs high, a longer glucose tolerance test follows, checking blood sugar across several hours to confirm.
Track Your Pregnancy Week by Week
Open Full Tracker →Why it’s serious (but not an emergency)
According to the NHS, if GD goes unmanaged, it raises the odds of a larger baby (which complicates birth), can lead to pre-term birth, preeclampsia, a newborn’s blood sugar dropping right after birth, and a higher future risk of type 2 diabetes for the parent.
If managed well, the outlook is good. Most people with gestational diabetes have straightforward pregnancies and healthy babies. It’s a condition to take seriously, not one to spiral over.
What managing it looks like
It’s not about diet but about a system:
- Monitoring – checking blood sugar with a glucose meter, usually a few times a day
- Food, retooled – working with a doctor or dietitian on carb timing and balance, not restriction for its own sake
- Movement – walking is doing more for your insulin sensitivity than you’d think
- Medication or insulin, if it comes to that – not a sign you failed, just a different tool for the same job
For most people, it resolves the moment the placenta leaves the body. A postpartum glucose check is still worth doing, since GD does raise future type 2 diabetes risk.
Will you feel different if you have it?
Probably not, and that’s the point. Most people with gestational diabetes feel completely normal. There’s no ache, no obvious signal, nothing that reliably tips you off. That’s exactly why it’s caught with a scheduled glucose test rather than left for you to notice on your own.
If you do get symptoms, they tend to be things like unusual thirst or needing the bathroom more than the standard pregnancy amount – but plenty of people with GD have none of that either.
Can you still eat sweets?
Gestational diabetes isn’t a ban on sugar (for most people), it’s a shift in how you balance it.
The goal is steadier blood sugar, not zero treats. In practice that usually means having sweet things alongside protein, fibre, or fat rather than on their own (for e.g., a cookie after a meal behaves differently than a cookie on an empty stomach), and keeping portions in check rather than off the table entirely.
Your dietitian or care team will help you find where your particular body’s line is – it’s rarely as strict as people assume going in.
The harder part
The assessment, diagnosis and treatment is fairly straightforward. The feeling isn’t.
A GD diagnosis tends to come with a disproportionate amount of guilt, like your body did something wrong, when really it just hit a hormonal ceiling that has nothing to do with willpower.
Cooper’s instinct to seek out other people’s stories wasn’t a coping mechanism, it was the right move. This is a condition best managed with information and company, not silence.
Feature image: Alex Cooper | Call Her Daddy
Birthbabe is supported by the beautiful babes who enjoy our content. We only recommend products we genuinely rate. We may receive an affiliate commission.
Birthbabe does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The resources on our website are provided for i
nformational purposes only. You should always consult with a healthcare professional regarding any medical diagnoses or treatment options.
