However, it would not be realistic
to recruit patients from participating centers earlier than
8 weeks of gestation. Both the folic acid and placebo have
identical external appearances to maintain masking, and
folic acid has no taste so the participants are not able
to determine if they have been allocated to the treatment
or placebo group. We expect that the folic acid from
Journal of Pregnancy 5
food intake and routine supplementation between trial arm
and placebo arm will be balanced through randomization