Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2024 Jun 1;37(3):234-238.
doi: 10.1097/ACO.0000000000001338. Epub 2024 Mar 22.

Current concepts in postpartum anemia management

Vanessa Neef  1 , Suma Choorapoikayil  1 , Lotta Hof  1 , Patrick Meybohm  2 , Kai Zacharowski  1
Affiliations
Review

Current concepts in postpartum anemia management

Vanessa Neef et al. Curr Opin Anaesthesiol. .

Abstract

Purpose of review: Postpartum anemia (PPA) is common in women after childbirth and affects about 50-80% of all women worldwide. Iron deficiency (ID) is the main cause for anemia and constitutes a potentially preventable condition with great impact on the mother's physical and mental condition after delivery. In most cases, PPA is associated with antenatal ID and peripartum blood losses. Numerous published studies confirmed the positive effect of PPA diagnosis and treatment.

Recent findings: Iron deficiency as well as iron deficiency anemia (IDA) are common in the postpartum period and represent significant health problems in women of reproductive age.

Summary: Important movements towards early detection and therapy of postpartum anemia have been observed. However, postpartum anemia management is not implemented on a large scale as many healthcare professionals are not aware of the most recent findings in the field. Diagnosis and therapy of PPA, particularly iron supplementation in ID and IDA, has proven to be highly effective with a tremendous effect on women's wellbeing and outcome.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

K.Z. has received honoraria for participation in advisory board meetings for Haemonetics and Vifor and received speaker fees from CSL Behring, Masimo, Pharmacosmos, Boston Scientific, Salus, iSEP, Edwards and GE Healthcare. He is the Principal Investigator of the EU-Horizon 2020 project ENVISION (Intelligent plug-and-play digital tool for real-time surveillance of COVID-19 patients and smart decision-making in Intensive Care Units) and Horizon Europe 2021 project COVend (Biomarker and AI-supported FX06 therapy to prevent progression from mild and moderate to severe stages of COVID-19). K.Z. leads as CEO the Christoph Lohfert Foundation as well as the Health, Patient Safety & PBM Foundation. P.M.'s Department received research grants from the German Research Foundation (ME 3559/1–1, ME 3559/3–1, ME 6094/3–2), BMBF (01KG1815), BMG (ZMVI1–2520DAT10E); PM received honoraria for scientific lectures from Biotest AG, CSL Behring, Haemonetics, Pharmacosmos GmbH, Vifor Pharma. V.N. received honoraria for lectures and travel expenses from Sysmex, Pharmacosmos, MCN congress organisation, and support for publication costs from the Goethe University Frankfurt.

The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Box 1
Box 1
no caption available
FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Potential causes of postpartum anemia. Figure 1 displays different causes for the development of postpartum anemia.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Moya E, Phiri N, Choko AT, et al. Effect of postpartum anaemia on maternal health-related quality of life: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Public Health 2022; 22:364. - PMC - PubMed

    2. This systematic review and meta-analysis includes 27 studies. Seven observational studies showed that iron deficient or anemic women were 1.66 times more likely to experience symptoms of depression than nonanemic or iron-replete women.

    1. Corwin EJ, Murray-Kolb LE, Beard JL. Low hemoglobin level is a risk factor for postpartum depression. J Nutr 2003; 133:4139–4142. - PubMed
    1. Lee KA, Zaffke ME. Longitudinal changes in fatigue and energy during pregnancy and the postpartum period. J Obstet Gynecol Neonatal Nurs 1999; 28:183–191. - PubMed
    1. McLean E, Cogswell M, Egli I, et al. Worldwide prevalence of anaemia, WHO Vitamin and Mineral Nutrition Information System, 1993–2005. Public Health Nutr 2009; 12:444–454. - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization (WHO). Haemoglobin concentrations for the diagnosis of anaemia and assessment of severity. 2023; Available at: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/85839/WHO_NMH_NHD_MNM_1....