Relations between maternal iron status during pregnancy and neonatal iron status.

Although many studies have investigated the metabolism of iron, there are few data on the relations between maternal iron status during pregnancy and neonatal iron status. These relations are discussed herein after a review of the metabolism of iron and ferritin, particularly during pregnancy. The current disagreement about the value of serum ferritin for evaluating iron stores in neonates attests to the difficulty of analyzing mother-neonate iron status relations. The placenta plays a key role in protecting the fetus against iron deficiency. Available data suggest that neonatal iron stores depend on hemoglobin levels in the mother and fetus and that maternal iron status influences neonatal iron status, at least during the first few months of postnatal life. Assays of receptors for transferrin and erythrocyte ferritin in the bloodstream are recent data on neonatal iron stores.