Folic Acid

[expectinglittlebear]

I am currently daily taking 400mg folic acid, as well as Vitamin D supplements & I am 12 weeks tomorrow.

The NHS website says that you can stop taking the folic acid at 12 weeks. Has anyone done this, or just carried on taking it? & If you did carry on taking it, does that cause an harm to baby?

I will obviously ask my midwife whether to continue taking the folic acid or not, I am just curious what others have done.

It can't do harm as combined pregnancy vitamins contain folic acid too and you continue taking them throughout pregnancy

@expectinglittlebear I've carried on because I still have folic acid and vitamin d left to use up. No harm so why not? It depends on whether you've got leftovers and also your diet and how much sun you are getting for the vitamin d. I tend to skip my vitamin d tablet if I've had plenty of sun that day.

I take pregnacare vitamins which contain folic acid so will take it through out x

I'm planning to continue my Pre-natal thoughout my pregnancy (containing Folate/Folic Acid), although it's early days for me at the moment. Folate is a B vitamin which are water soluble so you pee any excess out. Vitamin D is not water soluble but most Doctors suggest pretty much everyone take a supplement anyway, pregnant or not (because the majority of people in the UK do not get enough naturally).

I took them throughout my pregnancy in the pregnacare vitamins. DS is now 2 months old and perfectly healthy.

The free vitamins that the nhs give (I'm in Scotland but assume same everywhere in uk) have folic acid in and the midwife said to take them the full pregnancy

The point of taking folic acid is to avoid the spina bifida. The spine will close at 27 days of gestation , so there is no "need" to take it, but no harm comes from the dosage in a mutivit.
Since you are taking it on its own @expectinglittlebear , I would stop but in addition to vitamin D , I would take a DHA-EPA (omega 3) supplement since it seems to lower risk of autism.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1362361319877792
but only if taken in first and second trimester , not the last.

It doesn't matter if you carry on taking it or not. I stopped because I can't remember tablets anyway.