Pregnancy and Anemia

Broadly speaking, pregnancy and anemia go hand in hand in most of the cases. An inadequate level of hemoglobin during pregnancy is termed as anemia. The protein that exists inside the red blood cells, which functions carrying oxygen to the tissues of body named as Hemoglobin. Common anemias in pregnancy include iron deficiency anemia and folic acid deficiency anemia.

Pregnancy and Anemia

Anemia in pregnant women is defined as hemoglobin of under 110mg/ml and hematocrit of fewer than 31%. Although pregnancy and anemia are inter linked, still sometimes no symptoms are apparent but many times the pregnant women feel:

•  Breathlessness
•  Tiredness
•  Fainting
•  Paleness
•  Nausea
•  Headache
•  jaundice
• Abnormal awareness of the heartbeat

The causes indicate why the pregnancy and anemia are talked together. The major reasons for anemia in pregnancy are:

•  Poor diet with inadequate iron
•  Folic acid deficiency
•  Gastrointestinal bleeding

During pregnancy, the digestive system undergoes a colossal number of changes; hence a pregnant woman can suffer from anemia even if the consumption of iron and folic acid is adequate. The unborn child consumes most of the iron or folic acid normally available to the mother's body. As pregnancy and anemia are closely related so the pregnant women should eat foods rich in iron, such as:

• Whole grain breads
•  Cereals
•  Eggs
•  Dried fruit

Moreover they should prefer the food that is high in folic acid viz.:

• Wheat
• Beans
• Peanut
• Mushrooms
• Broccoli

Iron requirements go up significantly in pregnancy. During pregnancy, the amount of blood in the body expands 50% more than usual. And women need more iron to make supplementary hemoglobin for all that additional blood. Women should understand that pregnancy and anemia are the two faces of the same coin; hence adequate care ought to be taken.