Oral Iron Supplementation

	Iron (mg)	Vitamin C (mg)	Folic Acid (mcg)
Women (19-29)	29	70	400
Women(30-50)	29	70	400
1st Trimester	29	80	400
2nd Trimester	a	80	400
3rd Trimester	a	80	300

Table 2: Recommended Daily Intake of Nutrients for Pregnant women (RNI Malaysia, 2005)

Women with IDA and unable to tolerate or non-­‐compliance to Ferrous Fumarate

• Change to different preparation ( i.e Tab Iberet 1 tablet BD)
• Parenteral Iron therapy
• No advantage over the oral iron if the latter is well absorbed
• Blood transfusion

Content	Haematinics	New Obimin	Iberet Folic*
Vitamin A Vitamin B1 Vitamin B2 Vitamin B3 Vitamin B5 Vitamin B6 Vitamin B12 Vitamin C Vitamin D Folic Acid Elemental Iron Calcium Copper (Cupric Sulphate) Iodine (Potassium Iodide)	- 1mg 1.5mg 10mg - - - 100mg - 5mg 66mg - - -	3000IU 10mg 2.5mg 20mg 7.5mg 15mg 4mcg 100mg 400IU 1mg 30mg  32.5mg (lactate) 100mcg  100mcg	6mg 6mg - - 5mg 25mcg 500mg - 800mcg 105mg  10mg (pantothenate) - -

Table 3: Content comparison between each tablet of haematinics and New Obimin(*Not Available at Hospital Keningau)

Compliance Issues

• unpleasant side effects with haematinics, such as nausea, vomiting, constipation, abdominal cramping and diarrhoea, which are all dose related.
• Inconveniences involve taking four different tablets of vitamins together

Cost Comparison

• The cost of haematinics, consisting of vitamin B complex, ascorbic acid, folic acid and ferrous fumarate is approximately RM0.50, assuming the patient is taking 200mg OD of ferrous fumarate and 1/1 OD for the rest.
• On the other hand, New Obimin only requires taking one tablet daily, and each film tablet only costs for RM0.20.

References:

1. MIMS Getway 
2. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Iron-HealthProfessional/