A pregnant woman must not only take care of the growing baby inside her but she also has to take care of herself too. If the mother is not healthy, the baby will turn out to be unhealthy as well.
In order to keep the baby healthy and to avoid serious defects at birth, the mother must get enough of the folic acid from the day that she got pregnant. In fact, before conception, a mother must already be having a sufficient amount of folic acid daily.
Folic Acid or Vitamin B9 can be found on green leafy vegetables such as spinach. You can also find it on oranges and enriched grains. Studies show that when a woman gets enough folic acid, about 0.4 mg a day, during her early pregnancy, she reduces the chance for the serious neural tube defect by up to 70%! During the early stage of development for the baby, these defects occur and unfortunately, they may occur even before the woman even knows she’s already pregnant! So it is really important to keep yourself healthy and consume plenty of green leafy vegetables and other folic acid-rich foods.
Since it’s during the early stages that folic acid really makes an impact, doctors suggest that all women must get enough folic acid as pregnancy is only 50% planned and most women get pregnant without a plan. It’s better to play safe as you never know when God would give you a baby.
Author: Lucy Walker
Lucy Walker is a journalist, author and health living enthusiast who has been involved with health writing since 2014.
