The U.S. Public Health Service and the Alabama Department of Public Health recommend that all women of childbearing age consume 400 micrograms of the B vitamin folic acid each day to help prevent birth defects.
Folic acid is needed both before pregnancy and during early pregnancy.
Research has shown that folic acid can help reduce the risk of having a baby born with the neural tube defects spina bifida and anencephaly. Spina bifida is a congenital defect characterized by an incomplete closure of part of the spinal column. Anencephaly is a congenital malformation of the skull in which all or part of the brain is absent. Each year in the United States approximately 4,000 pregnancies result in spina bifida or anencephaly. Unfortunately, spina bifida and anencephaly can occur even before a woman realizes that she is pregnant.