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Importance of folic acid.

Hi, My names Laura and i'm relatively new to these forums and was wondering if there was anyone else that has had to suffer through a diagnosis that baby has anecephaly?

For those that like me before i found out have never heard of this its a NTD that affects the growth of the skull and brain which means that the baby has no chance of survival.

I was absolutely devastated as was my oh when we were dealt this devastating blow, it was in July of 07 and i was 13wks when told and 14wks when we made the deciscion.....THE most hardest deciscion to terminate our much wanted baby. I am now currently 15wks pregnant and thankfully due to increased folic acid intake everything is so far absolutely fine, i am however finding things really hard to deal with in the emotions department and am wearing out my oh.

I am hoping that my experience can help others understand the importance of folic acid intake when you start to plan for a baby and not just for when you get pregnant, i was however taking the standard dose and it still happened to me but i have an increased risk as we have spinabifida in the family so that may be why i was so unlucky, feel free to ask anything if you're interested/curious as i will honestly answer back, This wasn't my first pregnancy but number 4, i was at the stage where you take pregnancy for granted, i now know the reason for the first scan, i learnt the hard way sadly.

I wish everyone the best of health and thanks if you read this.xx

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Replies


  • Thank you sooooo much for sharing your story. I am so sorry you had to go through out and congrats on your new baby. I have been taking folic Acid as this will be my first month of trying and they are like bullets and I was getting fed up of taking them every day but now I an see the importance of doing this.

    Thanks once again image

    k xxx


  • Thankyou for your reply, i also found that as mine was increased it added to my sickness so i took them at night instead of morning.
    Good luck with the baby making.xx
  • I just think it is so important that you have wrote this even though it must of been very hard for you xxxxxxxxxx
  • Hi maynoschik

    Thank you for sharing your story. It must have been an awful time. Congratulations on your pregnancy and I wish you a happy and healthy remainder of your pregnancy.

    xxx
  • Thank you for posting. It's great you felt you could share your story to help us see the importance.

    Have a happy and healthy pg. xx

    http://tt.lilypie.com/tlKyp1/.png

  • Hi hun, thankyou for sharing your story. I'm sure it will help people realise the importance of taking folic acid. I started taking it when we started TTC. Enjoy your pregnancy. xxx
  • Thankyou for sharing your story, it must have been an awful experience to go through. I have read that if there is spinabifida in the family that you take a a larger dose. I have been taking my small dose from the beginning of the year.
    I hope that you enjoy the rest of your pregnancy and belated congratulations!!xx
  • Thankyou to all of you that have replied, i am glad that my experience is now having a positive effect and i hope that many more ladies take their folic acid and go on to have lovely bouncing babies, i wish all of you the very best for the future and thanks again.xxxxxxx
  • Thankyou chuckle for letting me know that we are not alone, it took us just over 8 months to get pregnant again but having such a devastating thing happen has taken a bit of shine out of this pregnancy, i suppose its only to be expected and if we were to have more in the future i'd probably still be the same, got that panicked this morning i went to see mw so i could hear babys heart beat as we now have to wait till next wed for AFP, dreading that now too!

    I wish you and oh all the best while you are TTC, my advice would be to forget you're trying and have fun practising as i was getting hung up about not getting pregnant, my doc gave me some advice that helped, she said that if you sleep together twice a week that should be enough as if you do it more you wear the sperm out and less than that it gets lazy, seems to have paid off for us anyway.

    All the best for the future hun and happy baby making.xxxx
  • I'm so glad that this is having a positive effect maybe i should e-mail baby expert and get them to put an article regarding this on the web and in magazine as it is extremely important, thanks claire for your reply and good luck to you and oh.xxxx
  • Thanks for posting about this, I've just started taking folic acid this month (we won't be ttc until about july) but I'm worried I haven't started it soon enough! Also could somebody adivse if there is different types? I have boots own and it doesn't give a lot of info on the box I want to make sure I'm taking the right one/dose?
  • Hi,
    I got pregnant in 1999 with my second child. I took the recommended dose of folic acid about 3 weeks before conception. At my 12 week scan it confirmed that I was having twins. Two weeks later I had a bleed and I had a scan which showed I had miscarried one of the twins. At 16 weeks into my pregnancy I had my AFP blood test done. The results came back as showing possible spina bifida. I was given a week to decide wheather to continue with the pregnancy or to have a termination. After lengthy talks with my husband, family, GP and consultant we decided to go ahead with the pregnancy as we had lots of support. My son was due on 8th september 2000 but was born by elective CS on 25th August. He was perfectly normal. No spina bifida. I was told that because I lost a twin at 14 weeks and then had my AFP blood test done, the results of the AFP were not a true result. Luckily for us, we made the right choice to continue with my pregnancy. my son is now a healthy 7 year old.
    Now I am trying to conceive my third child with my new partner. I started taking folic acid back in february.
    It is a very important part of trying to conceive.
    xx
  • Firstly sep2612, the recommended dose is 400mcg, i'm taking 5mg, which i suppose is a large dose, i dont think it really matters as when i was trying for my 3rd (now 2) i found some in the pound shop and they werent any different to boots or ones off doc (best to ask gp though), good luck with the baby making and have fun!xxxx

    Now, babymonkey, i am so sorry bout your poor little twin, but i am also happy that your other baby is fine, i'm just curious to know why they didnt tell you before you had AFP done that losing one baby would result in abnormal reading?

    I am so glad that your on for number three and i wish you all the best for your future,

    big hugs.xx

  • Hi chuckle,

    Well in this pregnancy i was taking the higher dose of folic acid for 8mths before actually falling pregnant, i was then booked in for a scan at 10wks only to be told when i got there they cannot diagnose the anecephaly till 12wks which happens to be the cutoff time for a d+c if anything wrong so i would have had to have given birth again which i dont think i could have coped with.
    When i went back 2wks later they said everything looked fine but i was still to have the AFP, i thought this only covered the downs risk but since coming on here i've found that it covers a lot more so now understand why my midwife councellor was insistent on me carrying on with the folic acid despite the doctor telling me to come off it, i am still taking it though.

    When i go for AFP i'm not sure if theres anything different they will do like put priority on results but i will ask, only got to wait till weds now so not too far, i do know that when i go to 20wk scan next month that i will be seeing consultant but not sure why, maybe they are just making sure alls ok and putting support in place should i need it.

    I think the midwives and consultant staff at my hosp (wythenshawe) are fantastic and i have never had a bad encounter with one yet (hopefully not just spoke too soon!!)

    I think its great that your consultant is doing scan for you when you get pregnant, we didnt have PM as we knew what was wrong and it wouldnt have told us why.
    I hope that all goes well for you this time and if you think i can help in any way feel free to ask.xxx
  • Hi Maynoschick,
    To be honest, I dont think the consultant knew why I had an abnormal test result for my AFP. I think they just said that to smooth things over and the way things are with suing hospitals, I think they were a bit worried but obviously I didnt care because I had a healthy baby. I had an in-depth scan every 2 weeks with my son. Every time I went for a scan I was worried in case they found something, but they never did.
    xx
  • I'm so glad that they never found anything on the scans, it's only natural too worry, i am constantly worrying then being mad at myself for doing it because i really want to enjoy this pregnancy.

    Has your doc said if they will book you in for early scans when you become pregnant again?

    I have my AFP on weds, not sure how long the wait is for results but will keep you posted, i sincerely hope all goes well for you and oh this time, i'll keep my fingers crossed.
    Take care.xx
  • They havent really said if I will have more than normal scans this time round. I will mention it when I finally get to that stage.
    Im sure you will be fine with your AFP. I know there are horror stories to be read but it is not very common and there are loads more pregnancies than are normal than not.
    I know you will worry yourself sick until you get your result, but please try to relax and do things and go places to try and take your mind of things.
    Good luck for wed, even though im sure you wont need it. Im sure everything will be fine.
    xxx
  • Thanks a lot, i'm sure all will be fine too, i've got a really good way to take my mind of it too, i've got a 2yr old running round so i bet she'll keep me occupied, which reminds me i'm off to playgroup soon, oh joy!
    Speak to you soon.xx
  • Hi all just thought i'd bump this back up the list for any newbies that haven't seen it yet.xx
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