The methodology was to select sixty teenage mothers, ages 14 through 19, from a mid-size town in Pennsylvania and collection of blood samples at 16 weeks into their pregnancy. The results were that the majority, 58 percent, was iron deficient, including 10 percent who were actually anemic.
Murray-Kolb notes that the high rate of iron deficiency is fairly typical of adolescent women who often experiment with a variety of diets. At the culmination of At the end of pregnancies, only 7 percent of the study participants were iron sufficient.
When the children of the study participants were three years old, the mothers were asked to complete two questionnaires about their child's behavior. The questionnaires indicated that the children of the women who were iron deficient early in their pregnancies had lower activity levels and were slower at responding to their environment than children of iron sufficient mothers.
To put it in words, "The results of this study reinforce the notion that prenatal vitamins are important for the health and well-being of both mother and child."