Iron levels...

[Luckystar1]

I'm 28 weeks pregnant and have just had my 12 week bloods back (efficient I know). I haven't seen the midwife yet (and have zero faith in the ones I have seen thus far).

I was anaemic during my pregnancy with DS and I have been extremely tired throughout this pregnancy.

I have been taking Spatone (2 a day) since I found out I was pregnant (4 weeks) and Pregnacare plus which has 121% RDA for iron daily.

My haemoglobin levels at 12 weeks were 11.7, which seems very low for the amount of supplements!! Have I been essentially masking something by taking them?!

I'm quite worried now as at this rate today's bloods won't be back until the baby is at university!!

Any advice?!

A haemoglobin level of 11.7 is completely normal for pregnancy. It will always be slightly lower than non pregnant. The dose of iron you have been taking in supplements is actually teeny compared to the dose you would be prescribed should you actually need to boost your levels. Hence it won't really have a significant effect on your haemoglobin.

Thank you that is very useful!

mine have just come back as 111 (or 11.1 i'm guessing) and MW recommended one a day Spartone, said not at iron tablet stage yet x

oh and that was from a 26 week blood test x

Anything over 105 is regarded as ok in pregnancy around here.

No problem. I would keep up with the supplements which will hopefully help to avoid any drop in levels. Obviously worth chasing up your recent blood results through as you may well have had a drop since then!
Hope you regain some energy soon.

Thanks all. I'm not enthralled at the level of care I've received this far, it seemed much better with my previous pregnancy (but we've since moved from that surgery, although still in same hospital), I just feel I should at least try and be a bit on the ball!

117 is pretty good. Mine were 115 at my booking. The midwife suggested that I take iron tablets but at that point I wasn't keen because I knew they made people constipated. However she did say that I was borderline and could wait until my 28 week bloods. I decided to carry on taking multi vitamins, but switched to pregnancare as the Asda brand were upsetting my tummy and I also started taking them with my main meal and mostly with a glass of orange juice as the vitamin C helps you to absorb iron apparently. I also started eating cornflakes for breakfast as they are fortified with iron.

When I had my bloods taken at 28 weeks it had gone up to 118. I had more bloods done at 33 weeks as I moved to a new area and they wanted to do everything again. They had gone up again to 119. So I've avoided the iron tablets as you have to be under 110 to be put on iron tablets here.

I would just chase them up with midwife GP until I've got the results.

I had to push for my 28 week bloods to be done. I saw the midwife at 25 weeks and all she mentioned was me having my GTT at 28 weeks. I had to ask her what was happening about my 28 week bloods. She just said ask them to do it when you do your GTT. So I asked when I was doing my GTT bloods and they said don't you have a slip from your midwife to request the bloods!

I basically had to go traipsing around to another part of the hospital to get a midwife to fill out a request form before they would agree to do them. If I hadn't of mentioned it and pushed for them they probably wouldn't have got done.