On Iron and Home Births

What's up with the low iron levels?

As I said previously, my iron levels are low. There are two levels that get checked - your ferritin levels and your haemoglobin levels. Your ferritin is supposed to be between 15 and 200 (mine is 4). Your haemoglobin is supposed to be over 120 (mine is 104). Iron can be low for a variety of reasons, but pregnancy is the culprit this time.

While you're "gestating" baby does a great job of sucking every good thing out of you. And if you're not eating well enough, taking enough supplements, etc. it will result like this: Baby gets all the good stuff they need and Momma gets what's left. So that's the case here. Our little girl is just fine, she's got everything she needs. I've just gone into deprivation mode on iron, because she took her portion first, and I'm left with the remainder. Same goes for calcium and... well everything else in my body.

But the things that makes iron deficiency (aenemia) obvious are: paleness (well, that's hard to gauge on me...), lighter mucous membranes (ie. pull your eyelids down from the bottom and they are pale pink, instead of red), and excessive tiredness.

Well, a few weeks ago I noticed I was exhausted all the time. I just thought it was a symptom a la Third Trimester! :) But I was wrong. It was my iron. I shouldn't have been that tired, that much, that quickly.

Yes, I have had this problem before. I had it with Joshua, in fact my scores were very similar to this time. I think I got 112(hm) and 6(f). My midwife caught the problem about 4 weeks before he was born and had me taking 3 doses of iron a day to combat the problem. I'm almost positive I had the same problem with Oceana, but was never diagnosed.

What else can happen when your iron is low?

You can hemorrhage during delivery. *YEAH!* So, I'm motivated to take my iron! Your blood can't clot like it's supposed to when your iron is low and the result is a lot of unnecessary bleeding. This isn't to say that all cases of hemorrhaging are due to low iron. But it seems to be a pretty common problem. I'm pretty sure I had low iron with Oceana because I bled a lot with her (in the first 1/2 hour after birth) and barely at all with Joshua. The difference was simply my iron intake. And since I've got low iron again with this baby, I'm assuming it happened to me each time.

Iron deficiency makes you more at risk for needing a blood transfusion after birth. There are other risks, but I'd say loss of blood is up there pretty high on my "I-don't-want-to-go-there" list.



And as for home birth. That is my plan, to have this baby at home. So far, I've done a little bit of research, seeing what I need and what I can do ahead of time to make my time more relaxed.

On my list of things to do:
* Find an old shower curtain to put down on the bed/the floor
(so I can feel free to birth wherever I want)
*Bleach the bathtub
(a continuation of the above freedom)
*Wash up plenty of towels and blankets
*Freeze some meals so I don't have to eat junk food those first few days
*Put some baby clothes in the hot water cylinder cupboard
(to keep them toasty)

Things I've already done:
Washed up the baby blankets and towels and stored them in the hot water cupboard
(so that they are always warm)
Washed up an old flannel bed sheet that I don't care about and put it in the HWC.
Organized for a home birth with my midwife
Arranged for Oceana to go to Gramma's house while I'm in labor
(while she was at Joshua's birth, she was little and didn't understand much. Now that she is older, I am concerned she won't like what she sees)
Organized who will be present for labor and birth
(Matt and my midwives, sorry everybody else!)

And there you have it. If you have any suggestions about home birth, any links to provide others information on home birth, or links to your own home birth stories on your blogs, feel free to drop a comment with those. I'd love to read up on other people's experiences, as I'm sure others are as well.