Inadequate iron stores in early term neonates

Area of Science:

• Neonatalogy
• Maternal-Fetal Medicine
• Nutritional Science

Background:

• Neonatal iron stores are crucial for infant health and development.
• Gestational age (GA) at term is typically considered 37-41 weeks.
• Maternal iron status can influence fetal iron accretion.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize neonatal iron stores based on gestational age (GA) at term.
• To investigate the impact of maternal iron deficiency (ID) on neonatal iron stores in relation to GA.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 751 mother-newborn pairs from a placebo arm of a prenatal iron-folate supplementation trial.
• Comparison of cord serum ferritin (SF) levels across different weeks of GA.
• Application of the general linear model to assess the influence of maternal ID on GA-SF relationship.

Main Results:

• Cord serum ferritin (SF) levels increased significantly between 37 and 41 weeks of GA.
• Infants born to mothers with iron deficiency (ID) had lower cord SF compared to infants of non-ID mothers (96.3 µg/L vs. 115.9 µg/L).
• The positive association between GA and SF was absent in infants of ID mothers; for non-ID mothers, SF plateaued after 38 5/7 weeks.

Conclusions:

• Neonates born at 37-38 weeks, despite being considered term, may not have fully developed iron stores.
• Maternal iron status is a critical determinant of neonatal iron accretion, particularly in late preterm and early term infants.