iron levels gone from 10.5 to 11.6

[lottielou39]

I was given a blood test at 28 weeks which came back 10.5 (borderline anaemic) and have been taking two sachets of spatone daily since. Had my iron levels checked earlier this week (am 38 weeks pg now) and it was 11.6. Not a big rise, really? I was expecting better. But I did have an upset stomach a fortnight ago, which might explain it.Maybe I need to take another sachet of spatone? Anything but those horrid black tablets!

No no no, that's brill if you've been using only spatone. It's really hard to get your iron levels up quickly, particularly as they tend to go down in pregnancy anyway. 11.6 is good. Honest. Keep taking the spatone, lots of iron rich foods and be v proud of yourself.

Thats honestly a good result. I was taking 1200mg of iron daily and mine stayed the same (10.4). Went down to 9 after birth and I am still struggling to get it up.

lucky you!
I haven't had another blood test, but I'm hoping mine has risen slightly.

Honestly, a rise of 1.1 is great, it really is.

10.5 wasn't borderline anaemic, either, I promise you - in pregnancy, they tend to want you to keep a higher iron level than normally necessary, just in case you have a big bleed.
they like you to be above 11, but my last one showed 10.0, and the MW still kept saying "i don't want you to go any lower than that" rather than "this is a huge problem"

11.6 is perfectly fine, and if you're taking the supplements, it will keep improving.
It does take a while for iron levels to rise - what you're looking for is the other figures in your blood test - your Mw might have mentioned them as "stores", because as long as they're not dropping, or are rising, then you'll be fine.

I did a thread about it, if you want to have a look at the advice I got.
here

11.6 is really good for pregnancy.

Mine were below 8 about 4 weeks ago, I'm now 9.4 so a slow rise but getting there. I'm 33 weeks

that's good then; am still shattered doing the simplest of tasks though; hurry up baby and be born!

I always have said being pregnant is more exhausting than a new baby.

Come on babies hurry up

X

I spoke to the people at Spatone when my levels went down to 10.4. They said they wouldn't recommend taking more than 2 sachets per day. Advised me to boost levels with iron rich foods - so lots of green veg and red meats etc.