At my last prenatal visit I had my blood drawn to check my hemoglobin levels for the third time. With my initial battery of blood tests my hemoglobin levels were good. As my pregnancy progressed, my levels dropped off and my midwife started me on an iron supplement along with adding more iron rich foods to my daily diet.
The results of my most recent blood test showed that my hemoglobin levels were still lower than my midwife wanted to see them. Once again, my diet needs to undergo a change. In addition to adding a third iron supplement to my daily vitamins, I also have to add a few more foods to my diet. First of which is a fortified wheat cereal. I was not exactly pleased with this addition given how this particular hot cereal is produced (the organic version is not fortified enough) but with a fifty percent daily requirement of iron, I figure that I can eat this, in my opinion, inferior food for several days if it will help get my hemoglobin levels up to where they need to be. With one serving a day, it really is not the worst thing in the world and with a bit of black strap molasses, honey, and butter, it does not taste too bad either. The second addition to my diet is eating a hamburger of sorts three to four times a week. I was trying to do this before but eating that much beef becomes a real challenge. Furthermore, I am not a fan of hamburgers so I use grass fed ground beef to make a simple filler free meat loaf, a simple Mexican chili, or a very meaty marinara sauce. As long as I consume the amount of beef that would be equivalent to a hamburger, I feel like I am on the right track. The third addition, which I was actually doing really well with early on was eating a small spinach salad every day. With any luck I will get my hemoglobin levels up to where they need to be without any problem.