Didn’t take enough folic acid

[Persika]

Girls, please, share you thoughts about this. The fact is I took 400 eu before 1.5 month of my pregnancy and during the first 4 weeks. Then I bought pregnancy multivitamins and didn’t read the instructions carefully where were told to take two pills to get 400eu of folic acid and I took just one during two weeks. So I took just 200 eu instead of 400 eu folic acid. So now I’m so worry about it. As I know it’s very important to take enough folic acid exactly in the first weeks. Of corse I’ll ask my midwife about it. Just would like to hear your thoughts about it, please share smth if you have such experience?

I didn't take any folic acid, I just made sure my diet was full of folate rich food such as spinach and DD is perfect.
You've been taking folic acid, just a slightly lower dose for part of it, so I wouldn't worry.
Do you eat cereal? Lots of cereals are fortified with folic acid.

I didn't take folic acid either. Babies were fine. Hope that reassures a bit?

It’s wasn’t a thing when I had my son. He is a rugby player now and absolutely fine.

Never took any, wasn't a thing when I had mine.

I’ve had hyperemesis throughout this pregnancy so couldn’t take a single folic acid! Everything all ok in my 12 week scan :) so wouldn’t worry!

Folic acid is taken to reduce the chances of Spina Bifida.

Spina Bifida is rare. Incidence is something like 6 in 10,000.

You have also been taking some folic acid so you will have some protection.

Take it correctly from now on, put this out of your mind and get on with enjoying your pregnancy.

Op folic acid is to reduce the risk of Spina bifida, which was quite common in the 70s and 80s.

But it's also added to bread and cearels to help the many women who end up with unplanned pregnancies.

So really I wouldn't worry about it.

Actually I try to eat healthy diet, I do ate broccoli and spinach but not every day maybe twice a week, I was sure that take it by vitamins. Thank you for support. I hope it wasn’t very crucial that I took lower dose.

Thank you so much for your support! Yes, today I started taking it as 400 eu

Actually I try to eat healthy diet, I do ate broccoli and spinach but not every day maybe twice a week, I was sure that take it by vitamins. Thank you for support. I hope it wasn’t very crucial that I took lower dose.

You don't need to ingest every vitamin or mineral every day to have good levels, our bodies process everything at different levels and over different time scales, it's highly likely that you've had more than enough intake of what your baby needs, if you've had broccoli and spinach a few times a week and started taking folic acid then I bet you have nothing to worry about.

Thank you!

Just posting for solidarity - this post made me check and I've only been taking one prenatal vitamin when I should have been taking 3 😭. Which means I've been taking 266ug rather than 400. Hopefully based on the replies it'll be okay and I'll up the dose from now on. God im so annoyed at myself!

I’m in a similar-ish boat. Realised the folic acid I had been taking was 3.5 years out of date!

I wasn’t concerned about this until a colleague of mines baby got diagnosed with spina bifida, and it’s been playing on my mind a bit since.

I’m sure all will be fine, women didn’t take folic acid supplement until recently and lots of healthy babies were born.

I will feel better after the 20 week scan though.

Good luck with everyone’s pregnancy x

I wouldn't worry too much.

Both my babies were born with severe tongue ties which both needed snipping.

This is so common now and studies have been linked to Folic Acid being taken in pregnancy!

I still would take it if I had a third to reduce risk of spina bifida but its not a huge worry if you miss doses or take too little as long as you're having some :)

Fun fact - Folic acid requires an enzyme called DHFR which converts it into dihydrofolate - a form that the body can then use in the folate cycle. Human DHFR activity in the liver is incredibly slow - Studies calculate we can actually only convert around 200ug of the synthetic folic acid per day. So you have very likely already saturated your body's ability to process folic acid by taking the 200ug dose daily. Any fortified cereals, beans, vegetables etc and that you eat will also boost folate intake. In Japan they don't even routinely reccomend supplements as they just reccomend a healthy diet. The 400ug dose is more reccomened as a fail safe way to get folate levels up across the entire population - they expect many women to miss doses etc.

Xxx