With pregnancy, expectant mothers begin to feel stressed about being able to provide for their babies. They become concerned about protecting themselves and being beneficial to their babies. For this reason, it is critical to replenish vitamin stores by paying attention to a balanced and regular diet! Your body's needs increase throughout pregnancy. Extra vitamins, minerals and nutrients are needed to maintain your body's order and support your baby's development. Although it should be obtained from food as naturally as possible, you will need to take supplements during pregnancy.
Supplementation is especially important after the 20th week of pregnancy;
Iron: During pregnancy, the expectant mother's blood volume increases. . With this increase, the need for iron increases due to the growth of the fetus and placenta. Taking iron supplements is important to help prevent iron deficiency anemia and also has benefits for the baby's development. Iron loss from the body due to menstrual bleeding is higher in women than in men. Especially in our country, most women have a deficiency in iron stores, even if they do not have any symptoms. In a normal pregnancy, the total iron requirement is approximately 1 gram extra. This amount is used to meet the needs of the baby and to increase blood production in the mother. This iron need, which increases after the second half of pregnancy, is approximately 6 - 7 mg per day. In total, the daily iron requirement during pregnancy reaches 30 mg. This dose should be taken as a supplement as it cannot be taken adequately through food.
Foods rich in iron in the diet are red meat and legumes. Although liver is the richest food in iron, it should be consumed in limited amounts as it contains high amounts of vitamin A and may harm the baby. While consumption of tea and coffee with or immediately after meals reduces iron absorption, vitamin C increases iron absorption by an average of 6 times. It will be beneficial to take your iron pill with orange juice.
It is difficult for the expectant mother to meet the increased iron need during pregnancy from her own stores or through nutrition. The greatest need to increase blood volume occurs after the 20th week of pregnancy. Even if blood iron levels are normal, the expectant mother should be given supplemental iron starting from the second half of pregnancy. For this reason, blood counts are also Even if your values are normal and you do not have anemia, you need to take iron supplements (blood medications) after the 20th week.
In cases where you do not take supplements and have iron deficiency; Your risk of premature birth and low birth weight will increase, and your risk of blood transfusion will also increase with the extra bleeding that will occur during the birth process. In addition, being anemic will reduce your performance and strength in taking care of your baby after birth. Iron supplements (blood medications) can cause constipation. Since pregnancy already creates a situation that increases constipation, you should take additional precautions in this regard, or you can mention this situation to your doctor and switch to iron supplements that cause less discomfort.
Another issue that should not be forgotten is that iron supplements can turn your stool black. Continuing iron supplementation for 3 months after birth allows you to reach your iron stores after birth and before pregnancy.
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