Folic acid query??!

[ACM88]

Hey all so I have been taking reccomended folic acid from before conception, and have now reached 12week mark. According to the packet I should now stop taking them. I brought some pregnacare vitamins to take for remainder of pregnancy, but they state on box, contain reccomended daily allowance of folic acid. So my question is why does on packet day one thing, and what does everyone else do?
I went for my first scan Friday and forgot to ask- will call GP later if needed!

I think that you can carry on taking them throughout pregnancy if you like but by 12 weeks the baby is fully formed and so folic acid is no longer required to prevent neural tube defects. It is needed for lots of other things like DNA synthesis though, so no harm in continuing.

I take pregnancy vitamins and have done throughout. I did not take a separate folic acid because as you say it's in there anyway. Both my GP and consultant/MW team said this was the most common way of doing it and absolutely fine.

Thanks for reassurance guys, didn't want to take anything that could cause harm!!

I was discussing potentially trying to conceive with my doctor recently. She said, basically, start taking folic acid the day you come off the pill, and once you're upduffed switch to pregnancy vitamins.

Basically, there's no benefit to baby of taking them after 12 weeks, but no real risk either. There was one study that showed an increased risk of childhood asthma where it was taken after 12 weeks but this has not been repeated (The study information should be here but unfortunately is not: aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2009/10/30/aje.kwp315)

I stop taking them at 12 weeks, mainly because I though they were making me feel nauseous so was glad to stop (I did stop feeling as sick but that may be entirely conincidental)

Hello, there have been several studies that have looked at links with asthma and most have not found an association.

Below is taken from a recently published review of the data:

The link between maternal folate levels and risk of childhood asthma and allergic disease has been investigated in 10 large prospective cohort studies that reported conflicting results. While the majority of studies reported no association, those supporting a positive relationship found a small increase in risk that was generally transient in nature, confined to early childhood, and associated with folic acid supplementation in late pregnancy.

My GP has advised me to take folic acid beyond 12 weeks as I have had 2 miscarriages previously.

I was discharged from hospital last week, I'm 17 weeks and was prescribed folic acid whilst an inpatient and as one of the meds to come home with, having previously stopped it at 12 weeks. (Although not taking them now anyway due to sickness!)