Re: [ozmidwifery] measuring Hb during pregnancy

[Andrea Quanchi]

That was what I was interested in reading in Odents opinion that suggesting iron supplementation to women with what I would have thought was a low Hb may be contraindicated. If the study he is talking about found that Hb 8.5 - 9.5 resulted in the biggest baby weights why would you need to be concerned about a low Hb. Even if the iron stores were found to be low ( although what is a normal level for pregnancy) does it matter because if iron supplementation is contraindicated what are you going to do about it anyway.
Andrea
On Wednesday, September 22, 2004, at 10:13 PM, Mary Murphy wrote:

Andrea wrote:"... there is a widespread belief that this test (hb)�can effectively detect anaemia and iron deficiency."
The latest measure seems to be Ferritin and according to www.ironpanel.com.au� this measures the iron stores in the marrow.�Ironpanel says that "ferritin < 15 means that a person usually has no sustainable iron left in the bone marrow" �My experience has been that pregnant women have reasonable Hbs (110) with ferritins of 5.� They are usually well and energetic, but because of the low ferritin are being supplemented quite heavily.� Comments please?�