Selfish placenta

I just talked to my midwife. Turns out despite my best red bean eating habits and taking those terrible ferrous sulfate pills everyday I only managed to get my hematocrit to 34 (and I ate a hamburger 2 hours before the blood draw!). Normal hematocrit for a regular women who does not have to share her blood supply with a selfish placenta would be 36-44. And with little me at 34 all this selfishness means mine will keep dropping (and it's never been higher than 35 to begin with, damn anemia).

At the hospital we don't give blood transfusions unless your hematocrit is 21 (whopping difference from 21). For those who don't know hematocrit is the portion of blood that is made up of red blood cells.  Its counterpart hemoglobin is what carries oxygen around the your blood. It one is down the other is to. Vitamin C helps increase their absorption from foods (meat or veggies). In pregnancy blood volume increases by 50% and the body needs alot of hemoglobin and hemotocrit to make all the new blood.  At the hospital we call them H&H. But for my patients are in the hospital, recovering from surgery, with bags of blood readily available. They are not growing babies.

So off I go to now take TWO iron pills a day (with calcium to increase absorption), invest in black strap molasses (supposedly the best bang for your buck iron-wise), and edamame (the highest iron of all veggies I can find). Wish my already slow intestines good luck :(  I say selfish placenta because it is still so much bigger than Panchito.