haemoglobin levels

[KayTee87]

My midwife has just called me to say my levels have dropped from 120 to 106 in the past 8 weeks and I've to pick up a prescription for iron tablets. I don't feel anaemic, I feel tired but that's because I'm not sleeping well. Would I not feel worse if I was anaemic? I will get the tablets anyway as she strongly recommended taking them, I'm just not looking forward to the side affects.
37 weeks pg

106 is not that low but you should take the tablets because you want your levels to be as high as possible for the birth in case you lose a lot of blood. Not everyone gets bad side effects, but if you do get constipated ask for a laxative to be prescribed as well.

Mine have done the same so on the iron tablets. ..Side effects have been the opposite with black poo! nice

I've been prescribed 630mg of ferrous fumarate a day - seems like an awful lot as my mum was on less when she was actually pretty severely anaemic but she wasn't pregnant so maybe that's the difference.

Similar to me: I was 122 at booking and levels dropped to 100 by 28w. Tried Spatone for a few weeks but only went up to 105 so I'm now on ferrous fumerate 3x a day. And a sachet of delicious Laxido to compensate for the potential symptoms.

Midwife couldn't believe I wasn't feeling any symptoms of low iron, but I felt the same as ever. I lost quite a lot of blood after the birth of my first baby and trust me, dealing with the side effects of iron after the birth is a lot worse!

Definitely take them, it'll help prevent you dropping lower. I went down to 70 and had to get a transfusion and that's not nice, and still wasn't up to approved levels after giving birth so had to stay extra days in the ward.