As the world gets warmer due to man-made climate change, more women are going to be at risk a type of diabetes that develops during pregnancy.

A new study published in the Journal of the Canadian Medical Association (CMAJ) says warmer weather increases pregnant women's chances of gestational diabetes (GD).  Like other types of diabetes, GD results in high blood sugar, which can adversely affect the pregnancy, the health of the baby, and the health of the mother too. 

Even women with no previous symptoms of diabetes can develop GD, but it turns out women who live in warmer climates are more at risk.  The authors of the study 555,0911 births to 396,828 women over a twelve-year period, 2002 to 2014.  They found that eight percent of women in hotter cliamtes developed GD, while only five percent of women exposed to very cold temperatures did.

"We observed a direct relationship between outdoor temperature and the risk of GD among nearly 400,000 women residing in a single urban area in Canada," say the researchers.  With more areas of the world having longer hot seasons and long winters becoming a thing of the past because of global warming, "the worldwide number of GD cases might continue to increase".