Taking spatone iron without being told to take it?

[sarah13xx]

Looking at my iron levels over the course of my pregnancy from blood test results it’s steadily been falling. At 34 weeks it was ‘borderline’ but I didn’t get it checked again at the 38 week appointment, even though I mentioned how tired I was feeling in the last week or so. Should I start taking spatone now for the last week and a bit until my c-section so I’ll hopefully have a bit more energy or should you only take it if told to? 🤔 Have been feeling completely fine the whole way through and now just don’t have an ounce of energy 😔 everything else seems to be fine

Yeah, it won’t do any harm. I take my pregnancy vitamin and two sachets of spatone with orange juice every day so take about 27mg per day as like you my iron has been slowly falling too. X

I've had anemia nearly all my life and used to love drinking spatone and feeling I was preventing my iron levels from dropping. But I was shocked to find that two sachets in the morning with fresh ginger tea was not enough to prevent my levels dropping to 4- I felt absolutely horrendous. After this it was so difficult to get it back up again. I think it is best to talk to your doctor or midwife and perhaps take something stronger. X

@Sheisfee thanks, didn’t want to overdo it. I’m already taking the pregnacare max tablets every day but thinking I could probably stop them and just take the iron for a week. Just don’t want to go into an operation with really low iron

@Matilda128 oh really? I’ve never taken it but just heard a lot of people saying it’s a good one. I was hoping they would just have done that blood test so I knew what it was now but it definitely feels like that could be causing my tiredness

Only one word of warning - iron can lead to constipation and a) that's not something you want after a section and b) you have to pass a bowel movement before you're discharged.

Not saying don't try it, but be warned!

It doesn't do any harm taking spatone but with me it really didn't do anything positive at all. I'm now taking a low dose of a iron supplement but mine is also slowly dropping. My hb is still fine so I'm holding off on heavy iron supplements that the doctor prescribes. They give me terrible constipation. X

I've only had 12 and 28 week bloods, my midwife advised me that as I'd started feeling a bit breathless (but otherwise fine) at about 25 weeks I might as well start on spatone and hope that my levels were good enough on my 28 week bloods to avoid iron tablets which having had them before I was keen to do! Sure enough they came back fine but I am carrying on with the spatone, can't say as I've had any problems in the bowel region, yet, but there's still time!

Iron tablets are so horrible but I think the actual level of iron in spatone is quite low so wouldn't be much good if you were actively anaemic- my levels might have been fine without me taking it but it's no bother to me so I'm glad I did.

If you really want to find out your levels you could persist with your GP or even try somewhere private such medichecks. X

Each sachet of Spatone has 36% of your RDA iron. If you take 2 per day, as recommended for pregnant women, you still wouldn't be overloading your system, so it won't do you any harm to take them.

My 12 week bloods came back saying that I was just under the borderline for anaemia (had also been feeling breathless and tired) I tried taking an iron supplement, which made me constipated, even if I was taking a laxido a day as well. Went and got some Spatone. I've been taking 2 sachets a day for just over a week and my energy levels are so much better. I don't need an afternoon nap every day now! I didn't think I'd see such a dramatic improvement so quickly!

They do say it takes weeks for blood results to come back as normal after starting iron supplements, but it could we'll give you a boost of energy just before labour.

Definitely no harm taking it. I was in a similar situation - booking in bloods iron was fine but by 28weeks they were borderline anaemic so midwife suggested spatone and some diet changes to try and avoid iron tablets as they are harsher than supplements. They took my blood and few weeks later and iron was back up to my booking in levels. I carried on taking the spatone alongside pregnacare throughout my pregnancy (midwife confirmed it was fine to take both) and continued to take it since just to keep my iron levels up after the birth. Never had any issues with constipation neither but I did eat dates/dried apricots everyday to help boost my iron as well so that might have helped!

I'm taking floradix, it has more iron in than spatone. No constipation issues so far and cheaper. It has stained one of my teeth slightly but if you only have a few weeks to go it shouldn't be an issue - took 10 weeks for stain to become noticeable for me.