11 May Why Three Months Pregnancy Plan?
Several Nutritional professionals, especially those who follow naturopathic principles, encourage their clients to make at least three months pre-conception plan. During that three months, the idea is to boost up your nutrients that supports healthy pregnancy (diet & supplements) as well as limiting those harmful substances such as alcohol, nicotine and caffeine. The following article below is another, new evidence that supports the idea that this kind of pregnancy plan not just help mother to go through healthy pregnancy, it also indicates that supplementation with folic acid pre-conception is associated with 8% lower risk of preterm birth and 19% lower risk of small-for-gestational-age birth compared with those with didn’t supplement with the nutrient prior.
Study shows timing of folic acid is key for healthy pregnancy
New research carried out in 240,954 pregnant women has found that taking folic acid supplements post conception may be too late to have a positive effect on key markers of a healthy pregnancy.
This latest research on the hot topic of folic acid supplementation and pregnancy was carried out by researchers from the UK, America and China using data from the Jiaxing Birth Cohort.
The impact of maternal folate status on infant neural tube defects and other congenital disorders is now well accepted. However the association between folic acid supplementation and other outcomes like birth weight and preterm birth is still unclear.
Results of this latest study showed that supplementation with folic acid pre-conception was associated with 8% lower risk of preterm birth and 19% lower risk of small-for-gestational-age birth compared with those with didn’t supplement with the nutrient. However, when folic acid supplementation was started post conception no association was found with either outcome.
The study also found that women were more likely to start supplementation post-conception (14%) than pre-conception (10%).
The message is now loud and clear – folic acid supplementation is important in pregnancy, particularly during the pre-conception period and continuing throughout pregnancy. So, advice is to start taking a high quality pregnancy supplement that contains optimal levels of folic acid from the moment you start thinking about having a baby. That way you can ensure folate status builds up to an optimal level at the point of conception, which appears to be the critical time. Women would normally need 200mcg folic acid daily, yet this increases to 600mcg per day when pregnant – the equivalent of eating well over a kilo of broccoli daily – taking a supplement is therefore a simple and effective way to ensure this higher intake.
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