A Welsh charity says folic acid can prevent birth defects
Spina bifida develops in the first 28 days of pregnancy – before many women know they are pregnant. Photograph: Shine Cymru
A charity launched a campaign last week to prevent common birth defects
in Wales.
Shine Cymru launched the Go Folic! campaign on Tuesday 29 November at the Senedd. The campaign urges all sexually active women in Wales to take daily supplements of folic acid, which can prevent many common birth defects of the nervous system including spina bifida.
Shine Cymru director Kate Thomas said: “The most serious form [of defect], anencephaly, means that the baby will not live beyond birth, and many babies born with spina bifida face a life with serious, multiple disabilities.”
Wales had the highest rate of spina bifida in the world in the 70s but despite this only 5.5% of British women take daily folic acid supplements.