Lactoferrin is one of the few supplements with strong RCT evidence specifically in pregnant women. It treats anemia, reduces preterm birth risk, and modulates GBS colonization — with a safety profile inherited from its 30-year history in infant formula.
Pregnancy is a uniquely challenging context for supplementation. Most dietary supplements lack pregnancy-specific safety data, and many are explicitly avoided. Lactoferrin is a notable exception — it has been studied in pregnant women in multiple randomized trials, has GRAS status, and has been added to infant formula globally for decades. The 2026 evidence supports several specific applications.
Iron deficiency anemia affects 30–50% of pregnant women globally. Standard ferrous sulfate (300–325 mg, providing ~100 mg elemental iron) works but causes nausea, constipation, and metallic taste in up to 50% of women — at exactly the time when nausea tolerance is already at its lowest.
The pivotal Italian trials (Paesano, Pietropaoli, Berlutti, Caputo, Polimeni, Valenti — multiple publications 2009–2014) randomized hundreds of pregnant women with confirmed iron deficiency anemia to either ferrous sulfate or bovine lactoferrin 200 mg twice daily. Results consistently showed:
The Italian Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics has formally added lactoferrin to anemia guidelines as an alternative first-line option. See our iron deficiency anemia article for the broader anemia evidence.
A 2017 Cochrane analysis and subsequent trials have documented that lactoferrin supplementation reduces inflammatory markers (hsCRP, IL-6) implicated in preterm labor. Two RCTs in women at elevated risk (history of preterm birth, bacterial vaginosis, or short cervix) showed lactoferrin reduced preterm delivery rates by approximately 40% compared to placebo, when started in the second trimester.