2012, Volume 5, Issue 1, pp 29 – 32

Personalised iron supply for prophylaxis and treatment of pregnant women as a way to ensure normal iron levels in their breast milk

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Authors and Affiliations

Correspondence to:Marin Gustavo, MD, PhD Faculty of Medical Sciences, UNLP. La Plata. Calle 60 y 120; (1900) La Plata, Argentina. Phone/Fax : 54-221-4216932; E-mail: farmacomarin@yahoo.com.ar; gmarin@netverk.com.ar

Abstract

Rationale: Because the characteristics of all body fluids depends on patient’s health status, is it possible that disadvantaged and socially vulnerable mothers may have lower amounts of iron in their breast milk, and that their babies receive lower content of the mineral for their normal growth and development. Assuring a preventive treatment of the mother might solve this problem.

Objective: to demonstrate breast milk iron content from disadvantaged mothers and impact of personalized iron supplementation program.

Materials and Methods: cross-sectional study. Breast milk samples were obtained for ferritin analysis. Health’s services usually provides free folic acid and iron treatment however, treatment compliance is low. Patients were random in two groups: “A: Controls” that had free iron tablets available from Health Centre; and “B: Intervention” group where patients accepted to be periodically contacted at home by health’s team for personalized iron dispensation.

Results: 360 patients were included. Profilaxis and treatment compliance were 100% and 97,6% for B group while for “Control” one was 63% and 34%(p0.0001). Higher breast milk iron levels were detected in Intervention’s mothers compared with control’s patients (p0.007).

Conclusion: Personalized iron prophylaxis and treatment increased breast milk iron levels. Public health policy must ensure iron dispensation for each underserved mother in order to reduce children problems associate to iron deficiency during the first year of their life.

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About this article

PMC ID: 3307076
PubMed ID: 22574084
DOI: 

Article Publishing Date (print): 22-02-2012
Available Online: 05-03-2012

Journal information

ISSN Printing: 1844-122X
ISSN Online: 1844-3117
Journal Title: Journal of Medicine and Life

Copyright License: Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.


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