Folic Acid: Take Note!
To prepare for pregnancy, all nutrients are essential. One merits special consideration: folate, or folic acid a B vitamin). Folic acid is the form of folate in fortified foods and supplements. Folate is essential to good health, and your body needs it to manufacture new cells and genetic material. Soon after conception folate helps develop the neural tube, which becomes your baby's spinal cord and brain.
Women who consume enough folate, particularly in the weeks prior to conception and during the first three months of pregnancy, may reduce the risk of neural tube defects, which occur when the neural tube does not close completely. In fact, as many as 75 percent of serious birth defects in the spine and neural tube (spina bifida) and brain (anencephaly) might be prevented if women consumed enough folic acid in the critical time before and in the early weeks of pregnancy.