Health Professionals:
Folic Acid and NTDs
Folic acid recommendations are strongly supported by health professional organizations. The following professional organizations have released recommendations on folic acid consumption, folic acid fortification or statements of support for the 1992 U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) recommendation for folic acid supplementation for women.
Neural tube defects affect approximately 3,000 pregnancies per year in the U.S.
It is important to note that approximately 95% of children with an NTD are born to couples with no family history of these defects. For those couples who have had a previous child with an NTD, the risk of recurrence is essentially tripled for each subsequent pregnancy.
