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Spina bifida prevention effort

Education and folic acid are the weapons in the fight.

The Spina Bifida Association of America is launching a campaign to help make women and their health-care providers aware that they can reduce the chances of a spina bifida-affected pregnancy by taking the B vitamin folic acid every day.

Each year, 4,000 fetuses are affected by spina bifida, a birth defect that involves incomplete development of the brain, spinal cord, the protective coverings for these organs, or a combination of these.

Although more than 80 percent of babies born with the defect survive, it causes varying degrees of paralysis, loss of bowel and bladder control, water on the brain (hydrocephalus), and learning difficulties.

If all women of childbearing age were to consume 400 micrograms of folic acid daily - the standard dose in multivitamins - before becoming pregnant and during the first trimester of pregnancy, the incidence of spina bifida could be reduced by up to 75 percent, experts estimate. Women who have had a prior spina bifida pregnancy or have the defect themselves are at greater risk; before and during early pregnancy, they need 4,000 micrograms daily of folic acid, available by prescription only.

To promote this message, the association, with 60 chapters throughout the United States, is offering a free patient brochure and an educational kit for health-care providers.