Other reasons for not taking folic acid and iodine supplements, as reported by pregnant women in this study, included: poor knowledge and understanding about the importance of taking supplements, not receiving enough
information from their health professional about the need to take these supplements and/or feeling nauseous when taking these supplements. Similarly, a British study reported that the main barriers associated with not taking folic acid supplements before becoming pregnant were previous healthy pregnancy outcome(s), nausea and morning sickness, and not receiving folic acid information from their GP. In addition, Gallego et al. also indicated that not only was the monthly cost of iodine supplements a possible deterrent, but so too was the lack of advice about the importance of iodine supplementation during pregnancy. Increased knowledge and understanding among pregnant women about the need to take both folic acid and iodine supplements could help to improve the use of these supplements during pregnancy.10, We found that although most women understood the importance of folic acid supplementation before pregnancy, most did not appear to understand that supplements, and in particular folic acid supplements, needed to be taken prior to conception.Women’s knowledge regarding folic acid supplementation and NTDs was improved after the introduction of a folic acid promotion programme (targeted at providing information to women