A new study indicates that pregnant women who maintain total healthy lifestyles, namely eat well, stay physically active, have low stress and don't smoke, are nearly four and a half times less likely to have gestational diabetes.

Published online in the American Journal of Epidemiology, the study by researchers at the University of Washington (UW) School of Public Health looked at the lifestyle behaviors of 3,005 pregnant women in Washington state of US Pacific Northwest. Overall, 20 percent of the women kept a healthy diet, 66 percent were physically active, 95 percent were non-smokers and 55 percent had low stress.

"Our study results suggest that a lifestyle during pregnancy including multiple healthy behaviors can be beneficial for preventing gestational diabetes," lead author Sylvia Badon, who conducted the research as part of her doctoral program in the Department of Epidemiology, was quoted as saying in a news release from the school on Thursday.

More than 200,000 women in the United States every year are affected by gestational diabetes mellitus, a common pregnancy complication that causes high blood sugar. Women who develop gestational diabetes are at higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. Children exposed in utero are at higher risk of macrosomia at birth, or being significantly larger than average, and of obesity and type 2 diabetes in childhood and adulthood.