Robin Asks:

I’m looking but I can’t find gestational anemia. I need to know if they would have diagnosed that in 1912 and what they might have called it. If it was diagnosed, what treatment might they have prescribed?

Jordyn Says:

First of all, I’ve never personally heard the term gestational anemia so I started my Google search with “when was anemia first discovered” and then started narrowing it down from there to pregnancy related anemia. I wasn’t having much luck on doing a basic Google search and decided to head over to Google books where I’ve had better luck with historical questions.

There, I found a book called An Antropology of Biomedicine and from that found the following information:

The discovery of the link between macrocytic anemia (a lack of red blood cells in which those that remain are swollen) and folate (a water-soluble form of vitamin B) was first made in India in 1928, when a British scientist Lucy Wills traveled to Bombay to work with “Mohammedan women” who were commonly found to have this particular form of anemia during pregnancy.

So, it looks like the discovery was made after your time frame, Robin.