Iron tablets

[Sarahlou8]

I posted a couple of days ago feeling breathless and dizzy, it turned out to be anaemia and I've been prescribed iron tablets. Does anyone else take these? How long does it take for them to work, and did any of you have side effects?
I'm 35 weeks pregnant.

I had to take them in my last pg from about 7mo onwards. You take them until the baby's born. Only side effect I had was very dark poo!

i had to take postnatally- you should try to take them with a glass of orange juice to increase absorption. what i did was on my weekly internet shop (such a wonderful thing when you're pregnant/just had a baby!) i bought a crate of small individual orange juice cartons and then had one with each tablet.

I've not had them, but a friend told me they can make you constipated? Dried apricots have iron and vit C in (and are IMO yummy) so might be good to take some of them too!

Oh, and don't take them with caffeine as that's supposed to inhibit iron absorption.

Iron tablets gave me horrible constipation but I took lactulose to ease it. Apparently it's okay after the first trimester so you would be ok to take it I think, but check with the pharmacist. I took them during and post pregnancy.