[Clinical experience with iron supplementation in pregnancy]

To study the efficacy of iron supplementation during pregnancy and its influences on the outcome of pregnancy.

A total of 369 pregnant women were enrolled in this study. According to the hemoglbin levels at recruitment, there were 2 groups: preventive (Hb > or = 110 g/L) and treatment (Hb < 110 g/L) groups. In the preventive group, women entered the study from 20-24 gestational weeks and were randomly assigned to materna treatment (n = 96) who took materna 1 tablet daily or control group (n = 95) who took no other supplementation. In the treatment groups, women less than 36 gestational weeks were accepted. They were randomly divided as materna (n = 93) 1 tablet/d, ferrous sulfate 0.3 g tid/d (n = 50) or Ferroids 1 tablet/d (n = 35) groups. Both Hb and serum ferritin concentrations were determined at admission and immediately after delivery. In some cases serum ferritin in the umbilical vein were measured as well. Hemoglobin levels were examined every 4 weeks during the observational period.

In the preventive groups, maternal serum ferritin levels after materna treatment were significantly higher than that before treatment and the control group (P < 0.05). As for the anemia women, compared the serum ferritin concentration, materna treatment had significantly higher levels than that at admission (P < 0.05), and also higher than that in the ferrous sulfate or ferroids tratment groups (P < 0.05). The s-ferritin in the umbilical vein had no correlation with the paired maternal levels. There were no significant differences in the pregnancy outcomes among all the groups.

Materna can increase the iron storage and effectively improve the iron deficiency during pregnancy, and has no impact on the prgnancy outcomes.