Additional iron intake

I totally understand that it's important to supliment your iron intake because pretty much no pregnant woman can consume enough iron from her food in the last ½ of pregnancy....but how much is too much?


I have a great multivit which contains 27mg per day and I though that was fine and then about 8 weeks ago my midwife said my numbers weren't impressive and put me on an additional 100mg. So we're up to 127mg at that point.


Last week when I saw her she said again that my numbers weren't impressive (never said low, just not impressive) so she has me taking 2 of the iron tablets. I'm now meant to take a total of 227mg of iron per day which seems phenomenal to me as it's around 10x the daily reccomended intake for women (20mg for non preg, 25 for preg)

Could it be that my body can't absorb iron in this form? I take it with something high in vitamin c and avoid calcium for 1 hour on each side of taking it so that shouldn't be a factor. I'm keeping up my fibre and water intake too so I don't get plugged up!

What have you all been hearing from your midwives?

My SIL is 13 weeks pregnant and her old dr(who she just changed) told her to take these iron tablets which was a high dose, she started getting sick and constipated(sorry tmi) so went and saw another dr. The new Dr told her that nowadays giving high dose iron isn't necessary(can't remember why) and told her to just take the pregnancy tablets they have enough iron in them. It may be different because you're further I don't know.
Some-one else might have better info for you just thought I'd let you know what just happened with iron tablets to me SIL.

Ellie

I posted about low iron levels a little while ago so this thread may be of interest to you.

High iron intake can cause problems. If you are taking iron supplements make sure that you are also taking folic acid (folate). This helps your body absorb the iron.

Thanks everyone.

I do honestly trust my midwife but I'll see if I can get in to the Mercy womens clinic near my mums work next week when I'm in Melbourne to get a 2nd opinion. I'm really apprehensive about taking such huge megadoses. My mum didn't suppliment at all for her 3 pregnancies (middle one was twins too) and all of us turned out just fine. Whilst I don't want to be anemic, I believe in everything in moderation.