Follow me on Twitter Ideally, you should have started taking folic acid (also known as vitamin B9) before getting pregnant. Folic acid is especially important in the first four weeks of your pregnancy, during which there will be rapid cell division and growth – specifically the development of the brain, skull, and spinal cord. That is also why you should start taking folic acid if you plan to get pregnant, because by the time you found out that you are pregnant, it would have past the four weeks.
A lack of folic acid / folate (the naturally occurring form) can result in many health problems. The most well-known is neural tube defects (NTD) in developing embryos. An NTD happens when there is an opening in the spinal cord or brain. With NTDs, the skull and/or vertebrae (back bones), brain and/or spinal cord are exposed. NTDs can cause life-long complications, depending on the severity. In the most severe cases, some babies won’t even last 24 hours after they are borned.
So, if you plan to get pregnant, consult your O.B. and have him/her prescribe the appropriate amount of folic acid to you.
Although taking folic acid does not automatically guarantee a birth-defect-free baby, it certainly reduces the possibility. It has been noted that the risk of toxicity from folic acid is quite low. This is because folate is a water soluble vitamin, i.e. it is regularly removed from the body through urine.