To ensure that you have a healthy baby, you need to take extra care with your health as well. Over the recent years scientists have discovered that getting enough folic acid is crucial for preventing serious birth defects, yet in a recent study only 7% of the pregnant women surveyed knew that folic acid should be taken prior to and during pregnancy for this purpose.

Folic acid has been particularly effective in preventing spina bifida, a gap between the spinal cord and the spinal column, as well as brain abnormalities like encephalocele, where the brain protrudes from an opening in the skull.

Folic acid is a B vitamin found naturally in leafy greens like kale and spinach and especially in real orange juice (fresh is better than frozen).  A number have studies have all demonstrated that women who regularly ingest 400mg or more folic acid before pregnancy as well as during the all important first trimester decrease the risk of their baby being born with serious birth defects by 70%.

Science is unclear as to why folic acid is this effective, but as folic acid is crucial to the proper development of DNA this may be the key.

The current CDC guidelines state that any woman who even may become pregnant (after all 50% of pregnancies are unplanned) should get at least 400mg of folic acid each and every day. How can you make sure you are getting enough?

In addition to eating plenty of leafy greens and drinking your OJ, you could switch to one of the many breakfast cereals that know have extra folic acid added to their ingredients.  Additionally there are an increasing number of breads and pastas available that have been enriched in a similar manner.

After a pregnancy is confirmed women need more of all the essential nutrients than ever before.  Adding a pre natal vitamin supplement that has folic acid as one of its components is advised by most doctors these days, especially for women over 35, whose age alone puts them at a higher risk for giving birth to an infant with birth defects?