Anemia and low hematocrit in pregnancy: causes, symptoms, treatment
Introduction
Anemia and low hematocrit during pregnancy: should the mother-to-be worry?
What happens if the hematocrit is low during pregnancy and if the hemoglobin also drops?
In the following lines, we will discover together the answers to these questions. For even more complete content dedicated to doubts and questions in view of the birth, I invite you to discover the prenatal video course "Nascere e Rinascere Madre", curated by Doctor Maria Chiara Alvisi, midwife of the DrSilva Parent Academy and the Yule Center .
For tips on your baby's motor development and how to prevent critical issues such as neonatal colic, the right place is my Instagram profile @drsilva.com_official .
How does blood change during pregnancy?
To get a clearer picture of the topic of anemia and low hematocrit during pregnancy, we need to take a small step back.
Doing it means remembering - and Dr. Alvisi also underlines this in this video - that pregnancy involves changes in the entire body, not just the uterus .
Among the numerous changes, it is possible to mention those related to the blood , which increases in volume both to avoid that, at the moment of birth, the haemorrhage causes the loss of an excessive quantity of cellular component, and to cope with the growth needs of the puppy.
The growing newborn takes in various substances from the mother's blood, including iron.
In light of this, slightly lower than usual levels of this nutrient during pregnancy should not necessarily be cause for alarm.
With the aforementioned increase in blood volume, we are faced with a phenomenon that, from a clinical point of view, is known as haemodilution.
The amount of plasma - the liquid component of the blood - increases and the corpuscular component, composed mainly of red blood cells, is more diluted.
The reduction of their concentration in the blood consequently leads to a decrease in hemoglobin levels ( more precisely, we speak of dilution and not of a concrete reduction ).
To understand what we are talking about when we call it into question and what the difference is compared to the hematocrit, follow me in the next paragraph.
