Anemia During Pregnancy

Contents:

• Causes of Anemia During Pregnancy
• What are the Dangers of Anemia to Pregnant Woman
• Alarming Symptoms of Anemia
• Treatment of Anemia While Pregnancy

Anemia in Pregnancy

During pregnancy the doctors closely watch indicators of hemoglobin in the blood of future mothers. Indeed, its deficiency means both the woman and her baby receive little oxygen. There are many reasons for the decrease of blood hemoglobin, but the results of analysis are not always the occasion to raise alarm and take drugs. The doctor will help to sort out a situation.

Causes of Anemia During Pregnancy

The reduction of the amount of blood hemoglobin is called anemia. Hemoglobin is a protein that transfers oxygen, it is contained in red blood cell – erythrocytes. Anemia is not an independent disease, but a syndrome, which can be found at the whole range of diseases.

During pregnancy even the hemoglobin rates of healthy women decrease insignificantly – it is connected with the fact that the volume of the liquid blood increases more strongly than the volume of blood cells in expectation of a child. This state is not a problem and is called hydremia.

A woman does not feel worse in case of a hydremia, the signs of shortage of micro elements and vitamins (brittle nails, hair, dry skin, faintness) are not shown, the extent and the shape of erythrocytes do not change and their content of hemoglobin remains in normal condition. Hydremia passes without treatment.

But sometimes future mothers get real anemia, when hemoglobin decreases too strongly. The anemia while pregnancy can stem from different causes: from problems with assimilation of iron in the intestine, from the strong vomiting because of toxicosis, from expectation of twins or a triplet. The risk of an emergence of this disease will be higher if the future mother has some chronic diseases (pyelonephritis, hepatitis, etc.).

What are the Dangers of Anemia to Pregnant Woman

The problem is that the disease provokes development of various complications. The risk of the miscarriages, premature birth is higher in case of anemia. And even, if the pregnancy terminates successfully, this disorder can affect the child health: children, whose mothers suffered from anemia while pregnancy, often have the ferrum deficiency.

Alarming Symptoms of Anemia

Sometimes anemia is not at all felt, therefore during pregnancy it is very important to regularly undergo medical blood tests. At the same time, it happens that the woman feels faintness, dyspnea, vertigo, she sometimes has syncopes.

Often women have changes related to iron-containing proteins deficiency in their organism: hair loss, brittleness of nails, formation of cracks in the corners of the mouth, yellowness of the skin on palms. By the way, the exotic food addictions during pregnancy, in particular, a desire to eat a chalk, rubbers, smell liquids with harsh odors can also indicate increase of anemia, therefore one needs to hasten to a doctor with an appearance of these strangenesses, but not to a stationery shop for another box of chalk.

Treatment of Anemia While Pregnancy

Of course, diet plays not the least role in treatment of the disease, but the widely prevalent tradition to pitch in "iron-containing" fruits and vegetables (apples, carrot, pomegranates) has few bases. The iron metabolizes from fruits and vegetables significantly worse, than from meat food, therefore one needs to keep an eye that diet would be rich in meat and byproducts.

It is important to remember that elimination of iron deficiency during anemia will fail only with help of food, therefore one needs to take drugs prescribed by your doctor. Fortunately, now there are many drugs which do not have harmful impact on a child. The drugs for treatment of iron deficiency anemia also contain different components reinforcing suction of this substance: ascorbic, amber acid and folic acid, fructose, cysteine.

It is not worth stopping the intake of drugs prescribed by the doctor immediately after general health improvement: notwithstanding, during pregnancy the woman's organism is exposed to increased loads, it is on the way to go through a labor with inevitable blood loss and to a long breastfeeding period – it all can cause relapse of anemia, therefore the specialists recommend to take drugs containing iron for a long while.