Anaemia in pregnancy - iron advice please!

[Fireba11]

I was told early on in my pregnancy my iron was a tiny bit low and to start taking iron tablets which I did daily. At my 28 appointment I was told it's dropped further to 91 and they were concerned. I was told take my iron tablets twice a day and they'd retest in a few weeks, if it hadn't gone up they would be looking at giving me a blood transfusion.

I have religiously taken my iron twice a day, avoided dairy an hour or so before/after, don't drink caffeine anyway, and often taken them with fruit smoothie for vit c. I got my result back today and I've gone from 91 to 86, in spite of everything I've done. They've taken more bloods so they can refer me to the anaemia clinic who should be getting in touch with me in the next week or so but I feel absolutely exhausted! I was intending to work until 38 weeks but had yesterday and now today off as I just have no energy at all.

I'm taking Boots 14mg iron twice a day, which is ferrous fumarate... I know some types of iron are better than others. Is there a better iron supplement I can try just to see if that gives me enough energy to feel human again or should I just accept I won't feel myself until I get either iron injections or a transfusion?

Ive got to the point where I’ve given up until I get an iron transfusion, which fx will be next week! I feel awful and nothing is helping.

I would ask them for iron tablets on prescription. 14mg twice a day is a very low dose - the prescription ones are 220mg. Either the midwife or your GP should be able to arrange that for you.

I echo getting the prescribed ones - they are much stronger. However they have awful side effects so I have been taking spatone twice a day which is a liquid form. The pharmacist told us there is something to do with iron being hard to absorb hence why the prescribed tablets are so high in dose, and the liquid makes it easier to absorb, particularly with orange juice.

Spatone and prescribes tablets have done nothing for me! Can’t wait for the transfusion.

I took spatone with fresh orange juice and it brought my iron levels up more than the iron tablets I was given... No constipation or sickness from it either!
It contains less iron than the tablets but is much more easily absorbed by the body. I wasnt really getting anything but sickness from the tablets, my body just reacted badly to them.... but it was able to absorb the spatone so I would suggest giving that a go!!