Nutrition and Pregnancy 475 Pregnancy increases nutritional requirements. Common sense tells us this fact. The following are recommended nutritional supplements to a healthy woman's diet during pregnancy. These nutrients all play a special role in the development of the baby. Spina Bifida Several nutrients are known to have profound effects of birth outcome.
Deficiencies can lead to problems listed below.
T he neural tube is the part of the developing embryo which becomes the nervous system. Spina Bifida is a condition caused by a neural tube defect. It is a birth defect which is more common when there is a deficiency of folate in the mothers diet. An even worse condition, anencephaly , is a neural tube defect which results in the baby being born with an undeveloped brain. Most of these infants do not survive.