(HOME) Subject: stillbirth/iron

Doctors in Sweden have found that a high level of hemoglobin in early 
pregnancy may increase the risk of stillbirth by up to four times, compared 
with women who have lower levels of iron in their blood. The research team 
from Stockholm's Karolinska Institutet reviewed more than 700 women who had a stillbirth between 1987 and 1996 and compared them with the same number of 
live births. 
They found that women with hemoglobin levels of 146g/L or higher at their 
first antenatal appointment were nearly twice as likely as women with lower 
hemoglobin to have a stillbirth. 
They also found that when they excluded stillbirths following pre-eclampsia 
or eclampsia, or where the baby was malformed, the link between hemoglobin 
levels and stillbirth was stronger still. 
When they looked at stillbirths which had occurred after a premature labour 
the risk was almost three times greater for those with higher hemoglobin. 
In cases where the stillborn baby was very small the risk was more than four 
times higher. 
The doctors took into account other factors which may influence stillbirth 
such as smoking and maternal age and socio-economic group. 
The Swedish research, published in the Journal of the American Medical 
Association, also found that that a large decrease in hemoglobin in 
pregnancy "tended to be protective" and that anemia did not seem to have any 
link with stillbirth.
	

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