She has assisted at over 1,000 births and is currently teaching in the nurse-midwifery program at the University of Minnesota. Mild iron deficiency anemia causes no real problems for the baby. These may not be directly a result of the anemia, however, but are associated factors. But keeping iron levels at normal levels increases the oxygen carrying potential of the blood and provides a buffer against the blood loss that will occur during delivery. But pushing iron in larger and larger doses is not the answer either.
More iron is absorbed as gestation advances too.
If you can tolerate them, iron is better absorbed when taken between meals and not taken with milk, coffee or tea. Taking a Vitamin C supplement has been shown to help absorption of dietary iron. A hemoglobin level below 11 during the first or third trimester, or below 10.5 during the second, is defined as anemia. Have your provider draw a serum ferritin level. Anemia accompanied by a serum ferritin concentration of less than 12 can be presumed to be iron deficiency and requires treatment with 60 to 120 mg of ferrous iron per day.