Iron suppliment question

Hi there!

My sister who is a month further along than me in her pregnancy, urged me to go on iron suppliments. I told her my OB never suggested it for me as he found no indication of iron deficiency in my bloodwork etc. But she still insisted that all pregnant women should be on iron suppliments regardless.

My question is this:

How many of you are on iron suppliments? With or without your doctor's go ahead?

I'm not having any iron deficiency symptoms or anything.

Let me know what you think.

Thank you

Denise

 

If you are taking regular prenatal vitamins, those have iron in them along with everything else you need. I personally haven't taken any extra iron, as too much does me more harm than good! I wouldn't think you would need more than what is in a prenatal vitamin unless you have some other problem.

 

I was on an iron supplement, starting around 28 weeks, but I do not recall the specific reason why. (There was one, obviously not too serious). The one good thing that came out of it was that I was having a lot of that restless leg syndrome at night. The iron supplements seemed to knock that out.

 

I didn't really start having any iron deficiancy problems until very recently (28 weeks). My doctor suggested at around 26 weeks that I start taking an iron suppliment. The prenatals that I have have 40mg of iron in them and they said that was sufficient. So I would just ask your doctor at your next visit if they plan on putting you on anything. You just have to watch because that extra iron can make you constipated, not real comfortable!

 

I'm anemic and take one iron in the am , one it the afternoon, then my prenatal at night. There is a lot of iron in your prenatal, too, so if your doc says you're fine - you probably are. Maybe just call the office and ask her/him. I take mine frequently throughout the day b/c your body can't absorb too much at a time. Can't hurt to ask your doc though.

 

Also - the constipation problem hasn't happened w/ me at all - so keep drinking plenty of water and you should be okay w/ that - if you end up taking a supplement.

 

I'm supposed to be taking an iron supplement, but I find the side effects are just not worth it. I try really hard to get extra iron in my diet instead of through a pill. Dealing with the 'roids just isn't worth the extra iron for me!

Reyna

 

I was prescribed an Iron prescription from my OB, because my bloodwork showed that my iron was low. I took it until delivery. It was a round red pill.

 

I took an Rx supplement from the beginning which was changed to chromagen later on in my pregnancy because of an iron deficiency. I'm sure your sister means well and it's quite possible her OB does feel all pregnant women should be on additional iron, but personally I would go with your doc's suggestions as he knows the full picture of your unique pregnancy.

 

I would double check with your OB, but always go by what they say. Some people don't need extra iron besides what their pre-natal gives them. My body actually doesn't absorb iron well because of my gastric bypass surgery, so I go once every 6 weeks for iron infusion therapy where I get my iron via an IV ...

Still, at the end of the day, your OB has probably done a full CBC on you early in your pregnancy to check your iron, and then they usually do it again around 26-28 weeks ... so if they find you slightly anemic then you may get the supplement.

Good luck!

 

I just started an iron supplement. It isn't effecting me constipation wise and I feel as if I have a little energy back! Yay!

 

My first OB practice actually told me to take 2 iron pills a day which I thought was crazy overboard. I read a study done in Cleveland that said taking daily iron supplements might correlate to an increased chance of PTL and they suggested just one pill a week for singleton pregnancies - of course that's just one study! I've compromised by taking a pill on M/W/F - that's 3 pills a week instead of the 14 my first OB recommended. No anemia thus far!

--Krista