Anaemia
Red cells in your blood contain haemoglobin, which carry oxygen around your body. During pregnancy your blood volume increases by a third, so more iron is needed to make enough red blood cells.
The demands of the growing baby and your haemoglobin levels falling means that most women will develop a mild form of anaemia. A typical symptom is tiredness, a common pregnancy complaint, so most women don’t ever realise they have it.
Symptoms of Anaemia
In severe types of anaemia, you may experience dizziness, faintness, or see spots in front of your eyes. You may also be short of breath. If you experience any of these, see your midwife or doctor immediately.
Anaemia can be easily treated with iron tablets, but you can also boost your iron intake by adding red meat and leafy green vegetables like spinach and watercress to your diet.
Your midwife or GP can advise you if you are experiencing Anaemia and suggest a suitable diet. Sometimes vegetarian mums can experience Anaemia because of the lack or red meat in their diets. See our feature Healthy diets for vegetarian mums-to-be. See also, Healthy diet for mums-to-be to ensure you are getting the right nutrients into your diet.
If you are vegetarian and want your baby to be vegetarian once he starts eating solids, read our feature on the vegetarian baby for more information, or chat to other vegetarian mums in our Chat area.
You can talk to other mums about their experiences of anaemia in the Mum Health area of the chat forum.
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Last Modified: 04/07/2007
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