Iron and folate status before pregnancy and anemia during pregnancy.

Background: A lack of information about the role that iron and folate stores (erythrocyte folate) play on the anemia incidence in pregnant women.

Objective: To evaluate the predictive value of ferritin and erythrocyte folate before pregnancy in relationship to the incidence of anemia throughout pregnancy.

Methods: Thirty-five non-anemic non-pregnant women were evaluated 1 or 2 months before the pregnancy.