RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN IRON STATUS IN PREGNANT-WOMEN AND THEIR NEWBORN BABIES - INVESTIGATION IN A SPANISH POPULATION

We studied 157 pregnant women living in Merida, Spain, during their th ird trimester of pregnancy and their newborns at birth, analyzing the mother's and the umbilical cord's blood for hemoglobin, hematocrit, me an corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), serum iron and serum f erritin. We observed statistically significant correlations between he moglobin and hematocrit values of the mother with erythrocyte count, h emoglobin and hematocrit values of her child and between serum iron of mother and child. The blood levels in the umbilical cord did not decr ease until the ferritin value of the mother was < 12 mug/l. Under thes e conditions the ferritin levels in the umbilical cord blood (80.4 mug /l) were significantly lower than in those newborn infants whose mothe r had adequate ferritin levels (123 mug/l). We deduce that maternal ir on status seems to condition, at least partially, fetal iron status, s pecially when the mother has some deficiencies. We did not find a lowe r birth weight in children of anemic mothers. Actually, we found an in verse correlation between maternal hemoglobin values and infant birth weight (r = -0.1731, p < 0.05). It is possible that the demands on the mother are increased in the case of a newborn infant of greater size.