London - Urging women to take folic acid voluntarily during pregnancy is failing to drive down rates of spina bifida, while the number of abortions for such defects is rising, experts have said.
Rates of neural tube defects – birth defects of the brain, spine or spinal cord – were still too high and the mandatory addition of folic acid to bread and flour should be considered, researchers said.
The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition wrote to ministers expressing concern that recommendations made in 2000, 2006 and 2009 to improve levels of folic acid intake were not heeded.
They pointed to a rise of abortions in England and Wales for neural tube defects, with 420 in 2013, up from 390 in 2012, 364 in 2011, 338 in 2010 and 299 in 2009. Women are urged to take 400 micrograms of folic acid daily while trying to conceive and in the first three months of pregnancy.
In the US, fortifying flour with folic acid has led to a reduction in neural tube defects. The experts, whose research was published in the British Medical Journal, analysed data in 11 000 cases of neural tube defects over 20 years across Europe.
Daily Mail