Creating an Iron Bond with Baby

It’s already known that anemic mothers may experience postpartum depression, and now a new Penn State University study has found that mothers deficient in iron may have more trouble bonding with their infants.

After observing 95 South African women interact with their children when the babies were ten weeks and approximately nine months old, researchers concluded that women who were iron sufficient and those who received iron supplements seemed to be more sensitive to their babies’ cues. They also scored higher on measures of emotional availability than did iron-deficient women. The study is the first to reveal a link between iron deficiency and mother-child connections.