ABSTRACT
One hundred years ago, the medical literature on diabetic pregnancy was very limited. Pregnancy itself was no less frequent, but the outcome was affected by so many other major problems that the influence of a medical disorder of a chronic nature was both unrecognized and disregarded. Diabetes mellitus was also less prevalent, due both to demographic differences in the age of the population and to epidemiological factors—mainly the absence of any effective treatment so that young people with diabetes had a life expectancy of only a few years. The diagnosis of diabetes depended on the demonstration of sugar in the urine and the well-known symptoms of thirst, polyuria, and weight loss, but there was no accurate measurement to assess severity, and the distinction between what are now known as type 1 and type 2 diabetes was only anecdotal. There was no documentation of the specific long-term complications of hyperglycemia in the eyes, nerves, heart, kidneys, or blood vessels.
