CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND OF STUDY 

According to Okafor et al., (2013), Anemia is a global public health problem affecting both developing and developed countries with major consequences for human health as well as social and economic development. It occurs at all stages of the life cycle, but it is prevalent in pregnant women and young children. As noted by World Health Organization (WHO, 2010), the importance of good hemoglobin concentration and good iron store during pregnancy for both the woman and the growing foetus cannot be overemphasized. Being a driving force for oxygen for the mother and foetus, a reduction below acceptable levels can be detrimental to both (Agan et al.,2010). Traditionallyas defined by Bull, (2006), anemia can be define as a decrease in the ability of blood to carry oxygen due to a decrease in the total number of erythrocytes, a diminished concentration of haemoglobin per erythrocyte, or a combination of both. A haemoglobin concentration below 11.0g/dl or a packed cell volume (PCV) of less than 33.0% is regarded as anaemia during pregnancy by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2010).

Iron-deficiency has been noted to accounts for the major cause of  of anaemia especially in pregnancy (WHO, 2010)  and is defined as an anaemia accompanied by a depleted iron stores and a compromised iron delivery to tissues.  In their study, Bursary et al., (2008), stated that iron deficiency is usually caused by nutritional deficiency or low iron stores resulting from previous pregnancy or previous heavy menstrual blood loss. Many researches have demonstrated that thephysiological requirements for iron in pregnancy are three times higher, than in non-pregnant menstruating women and that this requirement for iron increases as pregnancy advances. Iron deficiency anaemia is a serious health problem in the gestation-puerperal period as it is associated with several adverse perinatal outcomes like prematurity, lowbirthwight, maternal and perinatal mortality. It has been noted as one of the most intractable public health problems in developing countries and one of the commonest complications in pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa and Nigeria as a nation (Bursary et al., 2008).

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