Iron can shift quite a bit throughout pregnancy because of fluctuating hormone and blood levels. Iron levels are typically monitored via hemoglobin. Hemoglobin levels naturally decrease during pregnancy due to shifts in blood volume and hormones.
Hemoglobin production stays the same while blood volume rises. Blood volume is increasing significantly during the third trimester, but since hemoglobin production stays the same, overall hemoglobin levels look lower.
Estrogen continually rises and peaks in the third trimester, which can naturally cause lower hemoglobin because it increases our blood volume amongst many other important functions.
There is also a big transfer of nutrients from mom to baby in the third trimester. During the third trimester, mom is giving the baby a large number of nutrients, including iron and copper. This increases the need for iron and copper during this time as well as vitamin A (vitamin A helps us use copper).
While hemoglobin is meant to decrease toward the end of pregnancy, there can be reasons for it to go too low:
Iron Labs
Conventional medicine looks at hemoglobin of 8.1-10 as mild anemia. I think it’s so important to keep someone’s health history and current nutrition intake in mind. I would also look at copper, ceruloplasmin, and vitamin A. We have to keep the full picture of each person in mind and not treat a lab value, but understand their nutrition, lifestyle, and health history.
When it comes to supporting healthy iron levels in pregnancy, we want to first ensure we are getting adequate iron from our diet and that digestion is good.
Iron Rich Foods
If you need digestive support during pregnancy, you could consider apple cider vinegar, calm tummy bitters from Urban Moonshine, or digestive enzymes.
From there, you would want to get copper and vitamin A from your diet, which you can easily get from beef liver. This could be in food form 1-2x per week or in capsule form from a supplement.
If iron levels are still low, then you can use other strategies:
Learn more about mineral shifts in pregnancy in this podcast episode!
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