I am about 35 weeks pregnant with my third child, and have been pretty anemic for the last couple of months. My iron levels have stayed around a 9, and as far as I can tell, anemic moms have a slightly increased risk of hemorrhage at birth. Since I'm planning a home birth without a midwife (well, I have something of a midwife, but it's illegal in Ohio to carry pitocin and she isn't finished with her schooling or licensed, so in the event of an emergency where pitocin would be beneficial, we won't have access to any), I want my iron to be at a perfectly normal level before I go into labor. From what I can tell that is about a 12.
I am receiving regular prenantal care through a couple of CNM's at a hospital, because we are military and it's free. They know my plans, and are as supportive as possible but are really concerned about my iron being low for a home birth and have offered me IV iron therapy. I had never heard of this before, but they said that it would basically be large doses of iron supplements that go directly into my blood, so it completely bypasses the digestive tract and won't cause constipation or be negated by calcium intake. They told me there would be a number of treatments spaced out by a few days (they originally said 3 treatments over 10 days, but since I'm only 35 weeks and will most likely carry past term if my other children are any indication, I'm worried about getting my iron high now and then it dropping off again before the birth - potentially 6 -ish weeks from now, so they offered an extended treatment that will go over a couple of weeks and bring me closer to my due date).
Has anyone had any experience with this? Any thoughts? They said there is no risk to it, and no negative side effects. I really don't like IVs, so that's a bummer, but if it can bring my iron levels up nice and high I feel like it's worth it. They said it was very successful at bringing iron levels up high in a short period of time.
For the last month or two I have been changing around my diet - not a whole lot, but trying to grab more iron rich foods like almonds and spinach for a snack, and eating my meats and any other iron rich foods a few hours apart from any calcium. I'm taking an herbal tincture I got from a midwife that contains yellow dock, alfalfa, nettles and peppermint, and I'm taking an herbal iron supplement that I think is called "Every Woman's Iron Support". My iron has been increasing - I'm now close to a 10, but it's been very slow going and I would like to be able to stop worrying about it. I feel like I'm running out of time. Any advice is appreciated!
I am receiving regular prenantal care through a couple of CNM's at a hospital, because we are military and it's free. They know my plans, and are as supportive as possible but are really concerned about my iron being low for a home birth and have offered me IV iron therapy. I had never heard of this before, but they said that it would basically be large doses of iron supplements that go directly into my blood, so it completely bypasses the digestive tract and won't cause constipation or be negated by calcium intake. They told me there would be a number of treatments spaced out by a few days (they originally said 3 treatments over 10 days, but since I'm only 35 weeks and will most likely carry past term if my other children are any indication, I'm worried about getting my iron high now and then it dropping off again before the birth - potentially 6 -ish weeks from now, so they offered an extended treatment that will go over a couple of weeks and bring me closer to my due date).
Has anyone had any experience with this? Any thoughts? They said there is no risk to it, and no negative side effects. I really don't like IVs, so that's a bummer, but if it can bring my iron levels up nice and high I feel like it's worth it. They said it was very successful at bringing iron levels up high in a short period of time.
For the last month or two I have been changing around my diet - not a whole lot, but trying to grab more iron rich foods like almonds and spinach for a snack, and eating my meats and any other iron rich foods a few hours apart from any calcium. I'm taking an herbal tincture I got from a midwife that contains yellow dock, alfalfa, nettles and peppermint, and I'm taking an herbal iron supplement that I think is called "Every Woman's Iron Support". My iron has been increasing - I'm now close to a 10, but it's been very slow going and I would like to be able to stop worrying about it. I feel like I'm running out of time. Any advice is appreciated!
