Hi, I am Jyothi Chabria. We will be discussing importance of folic acid in pregnancy. Folic
acid is very vital for pregnancy because it helps to avoid neural tube defects which could
be seen in the fetus. So normally the intake of folic acid is encouraged 3 months prior
planning the pregnancy. Folic acid simply means, it comes from the word foliage which
means leaves. So, a rich source of folic acid would be found in lot of green leafy vegetables
like spinach and in collard greens, in mustard greens, in green peas. Why we give folic acid
also is that sustainability of the pregnancy is definitely enhanced by using folic acid,
along with iron supplements. And foods rich in folic acid will also include things like
broccoli, cauliflower, flax seeds, wheatgerm, these are the foods which are rich in folic
acid. All doctors in fact stress on usage of folic acid so that we do not pick up any
kind of abnormalities in pregnancy. At least we try to avoid those by using folic acid
supplements and in terms of diet and supplementation. Folic acid is encouraged by a lot of gynecologists
and doctors specially in pregnant ladies because we have seen incidents of anemia's very commonly
in pregnancy, which can be corrected as simply as correcting a, having a iron rich diet, a B12 diet
and a folic rich diet. for iron and folic acid absorption, vitamin C is integral. So,
that's the reason we encourage patients to have foods which are rich in vitamin C, which
would include things like citrus fruits and Indian gooseberry which is amla and pineapple.
All these things are rich in vitamin C. So, vitamin C coupled with folic acid is very
effective for keeping anemia's at bay in pregnant women.