Folic acid increases fertility


 

folic acid to improve egg quality

Folic acid improves chances to conceive and get a healthy baby. Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

If you are over 35, trying to get pregnant for a while, and live in a modern Western society, you definitely need prenatal supplements with folic acid.

Besides improving your chances to get pregnant, folic acid will give the best start possible to your baby, which will need a lot of support  in order to grow and develop well during the nine months in your belly.

In finding a supplementing strategy that works best for you, you may first want to focus on the “basics.”

You are free to choose from any of the well-known prenatal multivitamin brands, only make sure from the label that they contain at least 400–800 µg folic acid.

Start taking them at least three months before you try to get pregnant and continue throughout the first pregnancy months.

If you can memorize only one single supplement you should not omit during the preconception time, it is folic acid. Taking folic acid in the months prior to conception contributes to the prevention of severe neurological disorders in babies.

Therefore, folic acid increases fertility by helping you get and STAY pregnant, and enabling the best developmental conditions for your baby to develop well.

In this case, your genes and personal sensitivities don’t play a role, so that your simple decision to take a folic acid supplement can make a huge difference to the future health of your child.

A study published in 2009 in the journal Midwifery, showed that, in a sample of 588 Australian women who were actively trying to conceive, less than one-third took a pre-pregnancy folic acid supplement! Factors that were associated with an increased risk of not taking folic acid were income, smoking in mother, and baby being a non-first child.

Which lifestyle interventions are most likely to improve your chances of conceiving?

In a nutshell, folic acid will help you get pregnant and STAY pregnant.

Taking only folic acid places you in the top 30% women who are proactive in improving their chances to get a healthy baby (or babies!)

You may also want to know of the growing body of evidence from animal studies on the long-term effects of a mother’s nutrition on later disease susceptibility in her offspring? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

It means that nutritional milieu in a pregnant mother’s uterus induces slight alterations directly on the DNA of her baby (not exactly overwriting it, but adding some extra marks to it, this is called “epigenetic modification”), which affects the offspring’s susceptibility to many diseases later on in life. Evidence in human subjects is scant (for moral, ethical, and practical reasons it is not possible to experiment on human babies the way we do with animals).

Before the science figures this out, you can keep in mind the known facts, such that as during pregnancy, human babies have a high demand for folic acid and other B-group vitamins in order to develop their nervous system properly. So, folic acid is not something you want to leave your little baby without.

 

Folic acid (take 800µg folic acid every day while you are trying to conceive and continue throughout pregnancy):

Solgar - Folate As Metafolin 800 mcg. - 100 Tablets

Prenatal vitamins:

New Chapter Perfect Prenatal Multivitamin               Nature Made Prenatal Multi Vitamin Value Size, Tablets, 250-Count                   #1 BEST Prenatal Vitamins For Pregnant Women and New Moms --Complete Whole Food Nutrition For You & Your Baby--High Potency Folic Acid For Babys Proper Growth--Rich In Iron, Zinc & Vitamin D3--and Calcium For Strong Bones & Teeth--and only ONE Tablet a Day! Perfect During Pregnancy And Nursing. Made in the USA in an FDA & GMP Registered Facility. UltaLife PRENATAL PLUS Provides A Safe Dietary Supplement That You Can Trust. Two Month Supply--60 Capsules--Buy TWO, Get FREE Shipping--Satisfaction is Always Guaranteed.           FertilAid for Women: Female Fertility Supplement

 

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