When looking at the advice for iron supplements in pregnancy its seems to be safe if needed, but in all that information the line "Do not take Ferrograd C tablets during the first thirteen weeks of pregnancy appears" why is this? and possibly why is it safe later.
Link to Package leaflet
There has been some concern that iron supplementation early in pregnancy might increase the risk for infections, and hypertension.
However, the current Cochrane review of iron and folic acid supplementation does not find this
We included 61 randomised trials in the review with 44 trials involving 43,274 pregnant women contributing to the analyses. The use of iron or iron and folic acid supplements was associated with a reduced risk of anaemia and iron deficiency during pregnancy. There was some indication that maternal iron supplements during pregnancy could improve outcomes for babies (birthweight and preterm birth) but the evidence for this was not of high quality.There is no evidence that iron supplementation increases placental malaria.
And if we look at the method of supplementation with intermittent vs daily iron supplementation concludes
Overall, for women receiving any intermittent iron regimen (with or without other vitamins and minerals) compared with a daily regimen there was no clear evidence of differences between groups for any infant primary outcomes: low birthweight (average risk ratio (RR) 0.82; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.55 to 1.22; participants = 1898; studies = eight; low quality evidence), infant birthweight (mean difference (MD) 5.13 g; 95% CI -29.46 to 39.72; participants = 1939; studies = nine; low quality evidence), premature birth (average RR 1.03; 95% CI 0.76 to 1.39; participants = 1177; studies = five; low quality evidence), or neonatal death (average RR 0.49; 95% CI 0.04 to 5.42; participants = 795; studies = one; very low quality). None of the studies reported congenital anomalies.
For maternal outcomes, there was no clear evidence of differences between groups for anaemia at term (average RR 1.22; 95% CI 0.84 to 1.80; participants = 676; studies = four; I² = 10%; very low quality). Women receiving intermittent supplementation had fewer side effects (average RR 0.56; 95% CI 0.37 to 0.84; participants = 1777; studies = 11; I² = 87%; very low quality) and were at lower risk of having high haemoglobin (Hb) concentrations (greater than 130 g/L) during the second or third trimester of pregnancy (average RR 0.53; 95% CI 0.38 to 0.74; participants = 2616; studies = 15; I² = 52%; (this was not a primary outcome)) compared with women receiving daily supplements. There were no significant differences in iron-deficiency anaemia at term between women receiving intermittent or daily iron + folic acid supplementation (average RR 0.71; 95% CI 0.08 to 6.63; participants = 156; studies = one). There were no maternal deaths (six studies) or women with severe anaemia in pregnancy (six studies). None of the studies reported on iron deficiency at term or infections during pregnancy.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD009997.pub2/full
