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Folic acid for pregnancy planning

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home » About clinic » Folic acid when planning pregnancy

Any woman who plans to soon become pregnant and become a mother should consciously and carefully prepare for this new status. And if everyone knows about a healthy lifestyle, parting with bad habits and walking in the fresh air, then expectant mothers often ignore the intake of certain vitamins and medicines before pregnancy. One such remedy is folic acid.

What is folic acid?

Folic acid is vitamin B9. Often you can hear the generalized name - folates, they are derivatives of this vitamin. We must understand that we get them from food, and folic acid tablets are a synthetic agent that is already converted into folates inside the body.

All derivatives of vitamin B9 play an important role in hematopoiesis, that is, the formation of new blood cells. Therefore, the lack of these substances leads to anemia - a condition in which there are not enough red blood cells, or they are irregular in shape and do not perform their functions. Folates have another very important feature: they stimulate the formation of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), which are the basis of all body cells. Therefore, it is folic acid that is necessary for all rapidly dividing human tissues, including embryonic tissues.

The role of folic acid:

• participates in the formation of DNA in all cells, that is, the source of hereditary information;
• stimulates hematopoiesis;
• indirectly blocks the formation of cancer cells;
• restores muscle tissue;
• during pregnancy: plays a role in the laying and development of the nervous tissue of the embryo, participates in the formation of placental vessels.

Why do you need folate during pregnancy?

During pregnancy, especially in the early stages, the consumption of folate increases dramatically. All cells of the embryo are intensively dividing in order to eventually form full-fledged tissues. The nervous tissue of the future man is transformed especially quickly and difficultly. And it is she who requires a large amount of folic acid.

Folic acid deficiency during pregnancy can occur due to the following reasons:

• Insufficient intake of folate from food.
• Folate malabsorption (in chronic inflammatory diseases of the stomach and intestines).
• Genetic disorders of the folate cycle. In rare cases, a woman's body lacks the necessary enzymes (MTHFR). As a result, folic acid is not converted to folates, and they do not perform the necessary functions. Intermediate metabolic products accumulate in the body, which can lead to cardiovascular diseases, tumor processes, infertility and miscarriage. In the presence of such a mutation, it is recommended to take folic acid derivatives, for example, Metafolin. It is absorbed faster and in greater volume.
• Taking certain anti-epilepsy drugs and hormonal drugs dramatically reduces blood folate levels:
• oral contraceptives;
• barbiturates, diphenylhydantoin;
• sulfa drugs (for example, biseptol), which inhibit the synthesis of vitamin B9 by the intestinal microflora;
• drinking alcohol also lowers their levels.

At what stage of pregnancy should I take folic acid supplements?

Folic acid intake to prevent fetal malformations should be started already at the stage of preparation for pregnancy, at least three months before the intended conception. That is why pregnancy should be planned. If conception occurred unexpectedly, then you need to start taking the drug as soon as it became known.

Reasons for taking folates at the stage of pregnancy planning:

• If a woman has an unbalanced diet, her folic acid level can be low, so it takes time to replenish her reserves. It usually takes three to four months.
• The neural tube of the fetus is laid at such an early stage that a woman may not even be aware of the pregnancy, especially with a long menstrual cycle.
• Folate deficiency can make pregnancy difficult.

Doctors at the Intime Family Planning Clinic give the following recommendations for taking folic acid: in most cases, three months before conception and throughout pregnancy, you need to take 400 micrograms of folic acid per day. In some cases, the dosage is advised to increase: up to 1 mg per day for epilepsy and diabetes; up to 4 mg per day if there have been children with neural tube defects in the past Increased doses of folates can only be prescribed by a doctor after a thorough examination. The dose of folic acid during pregnancy remains the same.

We wish you an easy pregnancy and healthy babies!

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We have already found out that when planning a pregnancy, the lifestyle of the future mother plays an important role, namely the rejection of bad habits, proper nutrition, hygiene and sports. Vitamins play an important role in this, namely folic acid, which is advised to start taking 1-3 months before the expected pregnancy. It is its use that prevents possible malformations that can lead to the death of the child.

This is a B vitamin that prevents fetal neural tube defects. Moreover, it is important to understand that such an effect is possible only if folic acid begins to enter the mother's body before pregnancy and continues to be taken during pregnancy. Thus, from the first days after conception, the child begins to develop in the right conditions, because by this time folic acid has time to get into your bloodstream in sufficient quantities.

Unfortunately not. The fact is that violations of the laying of the neural tube usually occur on the 18th - 30th day after conception, when a woman may still not know about her pregnancy.

Let's start with the statistics: neural tube defects (yes, there are several!) are found in about 7 out of 10,000 newborns, and it is believed that in half of these cases they are caused by a lack of folic acid in the mother's diet.

The two most common neural tube defects are:

• Spina bifida damages the spinal cord: with this defect, most children survive to adulthood, but may be accompanied by central nervous system disorders throughout life, such as paralysis or inability to control urination and defecation;

• with anencephaly, the entire brain or a significant part of it is missing, in which case most children die shortly after birth.

Recommended foods include: Green vegetables, legumes (beans, peas, lentils), lettuce, berries, citrus fruits (fruits and juices), breakfast cereal, whole grain bread/bread.

This, of course, is not enough, because in most of these products the content of folic acid is less than 20% (or even 10%) of the recommended daily amount by doctors. The only exception is lentils, one glass of which contains 90%. Therefore, additionally every day when planning pregnancy and throughout its duration, you need to take vitamins that contain 400 mcg of folic acid.

Healthy women with normal pregnancy really need this small dose, but there are preparations containing 1 to 5 mg of folic acid. There are several "risk groups" to which they are prescribed:

• women who had a child with a neural tube defect from a previous pregnancy;
• diabetic women;
• women with elevated levels of homocysteine ​​in the blood;
• women taking antiepileptic drugs.

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