Abstract

PREVALENCE, ETIOLOGY AND PREVENTION OF IRON DEFICIENCY ANEMIA IN PREGNANCY

Raksha Dubey* and S. S. Choudhari

Abstract

Iron deficiency anemia is most the prevalent and also the most neglected nutritional deficiency in the world. It is not just a problem of developing countries or with poor resources but for developed countries as well. The main purpose of this article is to attract the right concern towards prevalence of anemia in pregnancy, Etiology not limited to during pregnancy but during entire adolescence leading to anemia in pregnancy and prevention of anemia in pregnancy by expanding the vision to adolescent age group so as to reduce the risk of nutritional deficiency anemia during pregnancy. Adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable to this condition because of elevated iron request for rapid growth and menstrual blood loss. The most common cause of anemia is poor nutrition which doesn’t come from socio-economic factors but from cultural and other conditioning factors as well like infectious diseases leads to malnutrition particularly during adolescents. Malaria, Intestinal parasite, Diarrhoea, Tuberculosis all contribute to malnutrition. The severity and duration of anemia plays an important role during pregnancy as it leads to higher risk of preterm delivery, low birth weight, maternal mortality, etc. Anemia is a global health problem that affects approximately one-third of the world’s population and is one of the world’s leading cause of disability. The morbidity and mortality in anemia in pregnancy mostly on the basis of inability of woman to react to postpartum blood loss thus leading to life threatning consequences. Iron deficiency anemia has direct relation with malnutrition, as per WHO iron deficiency anemia occurs in areas with chronic malnutrition around 50-80%. But iron deficiency is also very common in developed country as well which is up 20%. Women of reproductive age group are very prone for iron deficiency which is around 30%.

Keywords: Anemia, Iron Deficiency, Pregnancy, Malnutrition.