Oral Iron Prophylaxis in Pregnancy: Not Too Little and Not Too Much!

Table 2

Prevalence of iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia during pregnancy in Danish women according to ferrous fumarate iron supplements taken between meals from 18 weeks gestation to delivery [4].

	Iron deficiency^*			Iron deficiency anemia^**
Gestational week	18	32	39	18	32	39
=	427 (%)	310 (%)	269 (%)	427 (%)	310 (%)	269 (%)
Ferrous iron (mg/day)
20	6.1	50.0	28.8	0	1.3	10.0
40	9.0	26.0	11.1	1.9	1.3	4.5
60	6.9	16.9	10.0	0	0	0
80	10.8	13.2	9.0	0	0	1.5
value^***	NS	<0.0001	<0.01	NS	NS	0.02

^*Serum ferritin <13 μg/L.
^**Pregnancy: ferritin <13 μg/L and hemoglobin <106 g/L (week 18) <105 g/L (week 32) <115 g/L (week 39).
^***NS: nonsignificant.