Medical tests and treatment

Anaemia during pregnancy is usually caused by iron or folic acid deficiencies. The routine antenatal blood tests check the levels of iron and folic acid in your body.

Pregnant blood results and drugs prescribed. Your Midwife or Doctor will test your blood during pregnancy. The most common times are when you first become pregnant, when you are about 28weeks of pregnancy and then when you are  around 36 weeks of pregnancy to ensure you have a healthy iron level before you give birth.

If you are needing to increase your iron they may prescribe medicines for this. Beware of side effects of some drugs as often they can cause problems with your bowels and digestive system which is why it is worth investigating Natural ideas. Remember though it is important to ensure you have an adequate iron level in your blood before birth just in case you have a large loss of blood at birth plus you need iron to recover after birth.

Functions of Iron include:

- Iron transports oxygen in the blood from the lungs to the body tissues, as well as supplies oxygen to muscle cells, facilitating muscle contraction. This will help anything that needs healing after the birth, e,g nipples, stitches, c/section wounds.

- Iron raises your resistance to stress and disease by building the quality of the blood which will support your immune system.

- Iron also enhances you lung and breathing functions

Other causes of anaemia are low levels of vitamins B6, B12 and E.

As your baby develops the baby draws on the  mothers iron stores. The healthy baby does not usually suffer from anaemia unless it is born prematurely. But the mother can become anaemic most likely during the last four to six weeks of pregnancy when the baby is laying down its own iron stores.