Pregnancy anemia
January 29, 2010
Anemia is a physical disorder in which an individual suffers for low count of red blood cells, thus an anemic person suffers from iron deficiency. Inadequacy of iron may effect adverse on cell function in muscles and nerves. Similarly, anemia in a carrying mother may create adverse impact on her pregnancy. Preterm birth, insufficient fetal growth and poor birth weight are the immediate adverse effects of anemia in pregnancy period.
There are different variants of anemia, commonly observed during pregnancy. The types include anemia of pregnancy, anemia due to iron deficiency, anemia due to vitamin B12 deficiency, and anemia due to folate deficiency.
In pregnancy the blood volume of a carrying lady increases up to 50 %. For this reason, the concentration level of blood cells in a pregnant lady gets diluted than her normal condition. This condition is termed as anemia of pregnancy and it is generally not considered as serious physical condition unless the RBC level drops at too low level.
While the fetus is in the mother’s womb, it uses mother’s RBC for its growth and normal development, especially during the third trimester. If a mother has adequate or excess red blood cells in her bone marrow before her pregnancy, these RBCs can be utilized during the nine-month pregnancy period. But the women, who lack sufficient blood cells in pre-pregnant period, may develop iron deficiency anemia during her pregnancy. Inadequate nutrition in pre-pregnancy period stands responsible for development of this type of anemia.
In pregnant condition, vitamin B12 deficiency may lead to anemia. Ladies on vegan diet may suffer from this type of anemia because their diets lack inclusion of animal proteins like egg, meat, poultry etc in it. Pregnant ladies on vegan diet are given supplemental vitamin B12 injection during pregnancy period to overcome this deficiency.
Folate deficiency in pregnant condition is often comes related to iron deficiency; one of the reasons for this discrepancy is perhaps the same food source for both the nutrients.
Women suffering from anemia may not show any specific symptoms unless the blood count gets too low. The symptoms of anemia in pregnant women vary from one person to another; however, there are some general symptoms of pregnancy anemia. Paleness in skin, unusual pale color of lips, nails, palms, unconditional fatigue, and lightheadedness are the general symptoms for pregnancy anemia.
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