If you’re planning to get pregnant, one of the first things your doctor will tell you is to take a daily prenatal vitamin with folic acid. That’s because folic acid — the synthetic form of folate, or vitamin B9 — has been shown to help prevent neural-tube defects, including anencephaly and spina bifida. In a healthy pregnancy, the neural tube forms in the early weeks of gestation, eventually developing into the brain and spinal cord. If the neural tube doesn’t close properly, the results can be catastrophic . Many of these pregnancies end in miscarriage or stillbirth. In other cases, babies are born missing parts of the brain and skull and die within days of being born. Those who do survive are likely to contend with a wide range of serious disabilities, including paralysis.

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