Avoiding Iron-Deficiency Anemia During Pregnancy

One of the reasons you’re being turned into a human pin-cushion at your prenatal checkups is so that your health care practitioner can screen you for signs of iron-deficiency anemia.

Your blood volume increases by 50 percent when you're pregnant—something that increases your daily iron requirements by 50 percent as well. With your growing baby also drawing on your body's iron reserves, it can be difficult to meet your body's iron needs through diet alone.

You may be at particular risk of becoming anemic if

you don’t consume much meat, fish, or poultry;

your diet is low in vitamin C;

you have had two or more pregnancies which were spaced closely together; or

you have a long-standing history of heavy menstrual bleeding.

If your health care provider recommends an iron supplement, try taking your iron supplement with orange juice in-between meals as this will tend to increase the amount of iron that is absorbed from the supplement. Of course, if taking your supplement on an empty stomach makes you queasy, you may have to settle for taking your supplement at mealtime instead.

Iron supplements sometimes cause constipation. If constipation becomes a problem for you, you may want to ask your health care practitioner to recommend a liquid iron supplement rather than a standard capsule supplement. Some women find they have less difficulty tolerating iron supplements in liquid form.

If you’re not able to tolerate any sort of iron supplement, you will need to focus on getting iron from iron-rich foods such as beef, cooked beans, white beans, soybeans, lentils, and chick peas; clams and oysters; pumpkin, sesame and squash seeds; and iron-enriched breakfast seeds.

Did you know?

Your body relies on iron to perform three key functions:

1.Transporting oxygen: Iron in the haemoglobin of red blood cells carries oxygen from your lungs throughout your body.

2.Releasing energy: Iron is one of the key ingredients in the process your body uses to unlock the energy stored in food. If your body is lacking this essential ingredient, it can't make use of its food stores.

3.Boosting your immune system: Your body's infection-fighting cells rely on iron to do their job, so if your iron stores run low, you're more prone to infection.