الفهرس 
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Abstract
Iron deficiency anemia was found to be the primary cause of anemia occurring to pregnant women after the dilutional anemia. Pregnant females are more liable to iron deficiency due to the increasing demand of the growing uterus and growing fetus as compared to non-pregnant females.
Definition of anemia differs according to the gestational age but widely speaking, females with Hb levels less than 11 gm/dl with microcyric hypochromic anemia, with low serum ferritin , low serum iron and high TIBC can be diagnosed with IDA.
Anemia has major consequences on both the mother and the fetus. As regard the maternal complications ; there was found to be higher rates or preterm labor, infections and postpartum hemorrhage. Low iron stores in the growing fetus can suffer from low birth weight and major developmental delays in first few years of their lives.
The standard of care in iron deficiency treatment is oral iron supplementation during pregnancy according to the WHO. Current guidelines recommend the dose of 60 to 120 mg of elemental iron of ferrous fumarates per day for a minimum duration of 3 months in pregnant women.
The main prevailing problem in the treatment of patients with iron deficiency is the frequent development of side effects. For example , the most frequently reported side impacts are gastrointestinal negative events such as nausea, heartburn, pain, constipation and diarrhea regardless of the iron preparation type.
The overall rise in hemoglobin with Lactoferrin after 4 weeks and 8 weeks was greater relative to ferrous fumarate in this research. On the other side, gastrointestinal adverse events with ferrous fumarate happened more frequently than lactoferrin. Lactoferrin improves the delivery of intestinal iron and can enable iron absorption even in an acidic medium, which is better than ferrous fumarates.
Along with the absence of side effects, lactoferrin plus chelated iron administration resulted in very high compliance among treated women so is considered a much safer and more effective substitutes for IDA treatment for pregnant females than ferrous fumarate.