my mom was anemic when she was pregnant so i knew it was a very good possibility that it would be the same for me. sure enough, in my first pregnancy, after my 28-week blood draw, i got a call. "your iron is low." and not just a little low, either. it was enough that they told me to go right to a pharmacy, get some iron tablets, and start taking a double dose that very day. i figured it would be similar this time around. what i didn't know, though, was how much it could impact me.
i had my first blood draw at about 16 weeks. already low (the level was 33.3 if that means anything to anyone). so, i ate a LOT of spinach (spinach salad, spinach pasta, spinach and egg salad, spinach with humus, etc), drank tea made out of rose hips (actually quite good), and ate a lot of dried fruit. so i was hopeful that at my 20 week appointment, the level would have at least held steady. no such luck (dropped to 30.something). it's apparently not a good thing that it dropped so much in such a short time. and that the diet did absolutely no good. so, i bought an herbal supplement and i'm getting an over-the-counter supplement, too. and while i'm not thrilled about having to take all of that, it's not a big deal... except...
here's the bad news. if my iron levels don't "iron" out (ha ha) i can't have an out-of-hospital birth. and i really like my midwives and the birth center and i don't want to have to switch. so here's praying these supplements do their thing!
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3 comments:
I'm going to freak you out a little bit right now. I've psycho anemic - pregnant or not, and I totally just forgot to deal with it this pregnancy. So, like two weeks ago, I started blacking out a little and eventually just got out of bed one morning and totally collapsed. Had my iron drawn and what do you know - my levels were at an EIGHT. At seven, you have to have a blood transfusion. So I am also downing the beef, spinach, & eggs. A good tip for you is TOTAL CEREAL. For whatever reason, it is the fastest way I know of it get it in your blood stream. I had to live off of it on Elias' pregnancy and Nick is making me eat like three bowls a day now. Iron pills take about two weeks to get in your system so make sure you're getting that food in EVERY day! Low iron is scary at any level and I want to live vicariously thru your birth center birth:)
sorry for the book:)
Wow. So sorry this is hitting you! Please take care of yourself! These passing out stories scare me a bit! :) I'll be praying that you're able to PUMP UP on your iron... Keep us posted! :) LE
Yikes! Hopefully it will all work out and will end up being an annoying thing to keep track of, instead of something that prevents you from being at the birth center. If worse comes to worse, will the midwives deliver in a hospital?
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