Search Midwives Association of British Columbia (MABC)

Perinatal Services BC (PSBC) has revised the BC Gestational Diabetes Screening Guideline, which includes two important practice changes:

• Pregnant women/people are now recommended to undergo gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) screening using a streamlined approach involving a 2-step procedure, aligning with national practice (from Diabetes Canada).
• Testing labs in all health authorities will be updating the Gestational Diabetes reference values.
• As your local testing lab incorporates this update, you will be notified via a comment on your patients’ report. Clinicians are encouraged to use the new laboratory cut-off values effective immediately as various labs update their reference values.
• The standard outpatient laboratory requisition for maternity care has also been updated to reflect the change.

A BC Working Group for Diagnosis of Gestational Diabetes met in fall 2023 to review recent literature updates and provincial perinatal outcomes. This group now recommends the two-step approach noted above for the screening and diagnosis of gestational diabetes (GDM).

Members of this working group included maternity providers (family practice, midwifery, obstetrics), as well as endocrinology representation from all health authorities. This updated approach has been endorsed by Provincial Laboratory Medicine Services (PLMS), the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) and the provincial Ministry of Health (MoH).