Anemia During Pregnancy

Go ahead and eat red meat< a little every day> It"s short term> Also< if you can stand it< liver will help>

How low was your hemoglobin? In a normal, healthy pregnancy your hemoglobin drops by 1-2 points around 28 weeks. This signals that your blood volume has expanded adequately. This is a normal anemia and does not neccessarily need to be corrected. If your hemoglobin is below 11 though you should take a whole food based iron supplement that can be absorbed by your body. You can get a food based iron at a natural food store. You can also eat foods high in iron like Pamela suggested.

Beans are also very high in iron -- black beans, pinto beans, navy beans etc. Lentils (sometimes called field peas, I think) are one of the highest natural sources of iron. They are also versatile -- can be used in soups or just cooked and served over rice. Broccoli is also very good -- high in iron AND vitamin C, so most of the iron in it is readily absorbed into the body. Also, many cereals are fortified with iron, so look for those with the highest iron content and eat them.

My midwife told me to take Floradix Floravital Iron and Herb Yeast Free (I googled and cut and paste the name). I found it cheapest (it is moderately spendy) at vitacost.com. You may be able to find it at a natural food store in your area. It works pretty fast for an iron supplement - which take months to really get your levels to where they need to be, it is plant based, and I never experienced the side-effects that are typical with pharmaceutical iron supplements. During my second pregrancy I took and extra 50% of the dose and it worked well and didn't do any harm.
Second - be smart about when you take iron. Calcium inhibits the absorbtion of iron, so don't take iron near the time you take your prenatal, drink milk, eat cheese, etc. Iron is best absorbed when taken with vitamin C. Although doctors recomend taking it with orange juice, I read one source that suggested acidic vitamin C sources may not provide one with the best absorption rate. I always took it with grape juice about 1 -1.5 hours before or after having calcium. I felt that plan got me to where I needed to be pretty fast. That said, the most important thing is that you take it, so if making such a schedule for taking it doesn't work for you, take it when you can because poor absorption is better than no absorption (not taking it).

Good luck

i'd give the iron another try... take it in the evening, be sure to drink LOTS of water, and take colace a few times a day - it's a totally harmless stool softener, the cramping was probably due to the severe constipation that iron is notorious for causing. good luck :) i have been where you are!

You can take an iron vitamin every other day to minimize the cramping/constipation, also take a lot of orange juice or Vit C with iron, it helps with it's absorption. Spinach, eggs and prunes/raisins are great sourced of iron other than red meat.

Spinach! I sneak it in wherever I can. Iron supplements upset my stomach (which may be the discomfort you felt.)

I don't know if all iron is the same when it comes from a supplement rather than a food, but you might at least ask about or try Floradix Floravital Iron. It's in liquid form, and I could only handle it if i mixed it with oj and shot it (as in drinking not as in needles). I never had any constipation issues with it either.

good luck!!

I was also anemic during my pregnancy and had to take the slow release iron pills. I didn't have any problems with them. I would double check with your dr about it, at least call and ask. I agree with you, I would rather do more natural remidies than have to take a pill.

I would google foods that are high in iron and see what off that list you can incorporate more of into your diet. I personally ate water mellon day in and out for both my pregnancies. I wondered what it had that my body must be craving and it had a lot of iron in it. Not by any means highest on the list but I was so sick it was one of the only high iron foods I could stomach. I also could not stomach my prenatals. I managed not to get anemic- thanks to watermellon.

Do you know how low your hemoglobin is? Just asking cause if it's super low, you might need something more powerful.

But I always get anemic during pregnancies. With my last baby, I started bleeding at 29 weeks and was diagnosed with a previa. It increased my risk of hemorrhaging, even during a c-section. My doctor told me to get my hemoglobin up as high as I could so that if I bled a lot, I'd have a larger window of being okay (and, of course, they were ready to transfuse). So, I went a little crazy and ate beef everyday, ate spinach, and took Floradix, which is an iron supplement made from plants - so it's easily digestible and absorbable.

When my dr tested my levels again, she was shocked at how high I had managed to get my hemoglobin. It was in the 13's, which at that stage of pregnancy, most women are anemic. So, it was pretty awesome to get it so high!

So...I suggest those things. Eat lots of beef, spinach, and take Floradix (this type doesn't cause constipation). I ate spinach salads - that's how I got my spinach in, just FYI.

Good luck!

Hi M.,

I had very low iron during my first pregnancy and was feeling very tired all the time. And I was feeling like that for the past six years. But, about a year ago, I have tried Mega Food Blood Builder - http://www.amazon.com/Megafood-Blood-Builder-90-tablets/d...
and my iron levels went up very fast and I'm feeling much, much better ever since. Am taking them daily.
It's made from food - easy to digest - you can take it on empty stomach.

I lost a lot of blood when I had my dd and my doctor gave me iron pills. He told me they can cause constipation... I would be sure I ate more fiber when taking the iron supplements. Constipation could be causing the cramping.

I used to give blood too and to get my levels up I ate soup beans... chicken livers from KFC work well also.