CDC Features - You can Help Prevent Birth Defects

You can Help Prevent Birth Defects
Women can help prevent some serious birth defects of their baby’s brain and spine even before they are pregnant by taking 400 micrograms (mcg) of folic acid every day.
If taken daily before and during pregnancy, folic acid, a B vitamin that the body uses to make new cells, can help prevent spina bifida and anencephaly. These birth defects of the baby’s brain and spine are also known as neural tube defects.


Neural tube defects can cause lifelong disabilities and even death. Folic acid helps prevent neural tube defects.

Why should I take folic acid before I am pregnant?

•Half of all pregnancies in the United States are not planned.
•Neural tube defects happen during the third and fourth weeks of gestation, often before a woman knows she is pregnant. That’s why it’s so important that every woman who can get pregnant consume 400 mcg folic acid every day—even when she is not planning a pregnancy.

Where do I find folic acid?
Folic acid supplements and most multivitamins with folic acid sold in the United States have 100 percent of the daily value (DV) of folic acid, which is 400 mcg; check the label to be sure the vitamin you are taking has this amount.

Vitamins and folic acid supplements are available without a prescription in most pharmacies and cost just pennies a day.

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CDC Features - You can Help Prevent Birth Defects