Maternal anaemia and folate intake in early pregnancy

The World Health Organization recommends that women take 400 µg of folate supplementation daily throughout pregnancy. We examined the relationship between total folate intake from the diet and supplements at the first prenatal visit and haematological indices at this visit and subsequently.

Women were recruited at their convenience and in addition to clinical and sociodemographic details, detailed questionnaires on dietary intakes and supplementation consumption were completed under supervision. A full blood count and serum and red blood cell (RBC) folate levels were taken.

Of the 502 women studied, 97.5% had inadequate total dietary folate intake at the first visit, but, 98.2% were taking folic acid (FA) supplementation. Only 1.8% (n = 9) had anaemia at their first visit (with no case of macrocytosis). Subsequently, 212 women had a further Hb sample in the third trimester and 8.5% (n = 18) were anaemic and 43.4% (89/205) were anaemic postnatally. There was a relationship between the development of anaemia postnatally and lower RBC folate levels at the first visit (P = 0.02).

In a country where FA food fortification remains voluntary, these findings support the recommendation that women should start FA supplementation before pregnancy and continue FA after the first trimester.