ANEMIA IN PREGNANCY

Abstract

Since the circulating blood is affected by many physiologic processes (e. g. work, rest, food, exercise, emotion, infection), an analysis of the peripheral blood by capillary or vein puncture merely tells the state of the blood at the moment it is obtained. The bone marrow is more constant in its pattern and portrays both the present state of the blood organs and the immediate future of the peripheral blood. The correlation of these findings in both the bone marrow and the circulatory blood reveals the true state of the hemopoietic system. As clinicians, we have difficulty in evaluating the blood findings commonly seen during pregnancy. Because the hemoglobin and erythrocyte values are lower than those seen in the nonpregnant individual, earlier workers thought that pregnancy produced a true anemia. They speculated that this was an iron deficiency anemia due to the demands of the fetus for iron from the mother.