Nutritionist for vegetarian pregnant mum needed :)

[SimoMa]

Hello dear Moms & Moms - To - Be,

I'm looking for a professional nutritionist (anywhere in UK although I'm based in London) specialised in pregnancy who would be happy to deliver sessions remotely.

I'm 13 weeks pregnant and vegetarian since many years, with low Hb, high iron and normal B12 levels and despite being very careful with what I'm eating at the moment, I could do with some help organising my diet in the best possible way for the rest of my pregnancy.

Thank you for your help!

[Bigblueskies]

Hi

I have no recommendation on a nutritionist I’m afraid, they are not recognised as a health profession and I generally avoid them as they sometimes can be harmful in their views and not regulated. I would suggest you find a fully qualified dietitian instead who may be able to advise based on proper science.

However I wanted to share that I have the same issue of low Hb, often high (but not too high) iron and normal B12 and folic acid. I have thalassaemia minor from birth and my Hb will always be low no matter what I eat, they call this a physiological anaemia and it is much less dangerous than a deficiency anaemia. The midwife will be able to advise if your Hb is too low and presents a risk but do stress to them that your iron is high as they often prescribe iron tablets without checking your iron levels specifically which can be dangerous.

In my last pregnancy I was told that if Hb stays above 79 then it’s all fine and nothing to worry about. Below that, they would monitor me in case I needed a transfusion I got down to 78 but all was fine and I lost very little blood at birth so no intervention was needed.

Depending on your numbers, perhaps this is not something to worry about at all. I am also vegan and have been for years. I take a pregnancy multivitamin every day and I was told not to worry if my iron gets a bit high in early pregnancy as it will go down drastically towards the third trimester. That absolutely happened to me and for the first time in my life I had borderline low iron.

I hope this helps. There’s enough to stress about the pregnancy. As long as your weight is normal, you eat a balanced diet, have no deficiencies of specific nutrients and you take a pregnancy multivitamin there is nothing to worry about.