Antenatal Iron Supplementation: Only Thrice a Week

Abstract

The regimen of antenatal iron supplementation as practised today needs review. Daily ciral iron supplements not only cause distressing side effects which result in*poor compliance but also a substantial proportion of the supplement remains unabsorbed (1.,2,3,4,5). Less frequent oral iron supplementation may be equally beneficial to a subject as daily suppiements (6). A study on non pregnant females has suggested that an iron supplement given once a week is equally effective in improving haemoglobin(Flb) levels as a daily iron supplement (7). However a study carried out by us suggested that weekly iron supplements were inadequate to meet the additional requirements of iron during pregnancy/ especially in women with borderline or latent iron deficiency (8). Studies on rats have shown that iron absorption is suppressed after an oral iron supplement. This suppression apparently lasts throughout their mucosal cell turnover time (9,10). It has also been shown that an oral iron supplement given every 2nd or 3rd day was equally effective as daily iron supplements in improving the iron status of anaemic rats (11). Hence this study was designed to assess the effectiveness of an antenatal oral iron supplement given three times a week in improving the iron status of pregnant women.