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Folic Acid During Preconception
A Vital Role in Healthy Pregnancies By Jessica Williams
A healthy diet rich in vitamins and minerals is very important if you want to start your pregnancy right. In addition to eating right, there is one vitamin that is crucial as you try to conceive: folic acid. This little vitamin is so important that 15 of the nation's leading organizations have joined together under the March of Dimes to help spread awareness to women who could become pregnant. Folic acid reduces the risk of having a child with a neural tube defects (NTDs) like anencephaly and spina bifida the two main forms of NTDs when 400 micrograms are taken every day.
Folic Acid is a B vitamin and is found in different foods (the natural form is called folate) and in supplements. Researchers suspected that a good diet played a role in preventing defects in babies as early as the 1950s, but it wasn't until the early 1990s that compelling research became available about folic acid's role in preventing NTDs. Now the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and many other organizations are spreading the message that folic acid is vital to women who are trying to conceive.
So why can't you just take your prenatal vitamin once you get pregnant and not worry about all of this? Because NTDs occur very early in pregnancy (about 18 to 30 days after conception) often before a woman even knows she is pregnant.
The March of Dimes recommends taking a multi-vitamin that contains folic acid as the only assurance that you are getting your daily requirements. But, you should also eat foods that are rich in folic acid, such as:
- Orange juice and other citrus juices
- Fortified cereal
- Dark, leafy vegetables like spinach
- Liver and organ meats
- Legumes
It is especially important for women who smoke or drink, women who have been on the pill or women who have been dieting or not eating balanced meals to receive the daily recommendation of folic acid before conception and during the first trimester of pregnancy.
