Planning to have a baby? Your doctor may want you to make sure your A1C is less than 7 percent before you conceive. Doing so can prevent birth defects and infant death. A study of nearly 1,000 women found that the risk of infant death and birth defects increased as A1C topped 7 percent. When A1C, an estimate of average blood glucose levels over the past two to three months, was between 8.9 and 10.3, the women’s risk doubled compared with a group of women without diabetes. Above 10.3, the women were four times as likely to have a poor outcome.
Source: Diabetes Care, June 2009