Baby Formula

Did you know you can really save the baby in your womb from a lot of birth defects by adopting a more fit way of eating? According to a research, a good diet (e. G the Mediterranean diet) can seriously reduce the risk of birth defects such as neural tube defects and orofacial clefts. Now, if this is not this reason enough to switch to a healthier pregnancy diet, I do not know what else is.

A Closer Look at the Issue

According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 1,500 babies in America are born each year with spina bifida “a kind of neural tube defect (NTD) wherein the spine and the spinal canal don't close after birth. This condition is AKA myelomeningocele or a split spine.

The CDC further guesses that about 900 babies (or one in every 4,859 births) in the US will be born with some pieces of the brain and skull missing. This is another kind of neural tube defect known as anencephaly. Infants born with this condition aren't anticipated to survive and may die straight after birth.

Orofacial clefts, on the other hand, affect more than 7,000 children in America each year. According to CDC estimates, more than 2,500 babies are born with a cleft palate while about 4,500 children are born with a cleft lip or without a cleft palate.

Kids born with these defects will always require treatments. Babies born with spina bifida will have various degrees of mobility and physical restrictions. They may ultimately walk without any aids as they age or may require the use of crutches, braces, hikers or wheelchairs. Babies born with orofacial clefts, on the other hand, will always require curative surgery, ideally within the first 12 months of their lives.

Conquering the Issue “Promising Results of Related Studies

According to the Sep 1992 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, research showed clearly that adding about 0.4 milligram or 400 micrograms of folic acid in a woman’s diet can noticeably reduce the number of neural tube defects. Now, since majority of NTD cases happen during the initial few weeks of pregnancy (even before the lady knows she's pregnant), gurus suggested that all women of child-bearing age should take daily folic acid supplementation. This ended in a 31% reduction in the predominance of NTD cases in the US between 1995 and 1996.

In a research conducted by Dr. Margaret A. Honein, MILES PER HOUR, State Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Incapacities of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and other leading experts in the field, it was observed that fortifying enriched cereals with folic acid ended in an extra 19% decrease in NTD cases from 1998 to 1999. The full details of this research are documented in the 2001 Book of the American Medical Association.

Based mostly on the changes of these earlier studies, Dr. Suzan L. Carmichael, associate professor of paediatrics at the Stanford University in Stanford, California, together with a few expert comrades, made a decision to go a nick further and studied the effects of eating a healthy diet during pregnancy with the commonness of NTDs. Using information from the Nation's Birth Problems Prevention Study, they compared about 3,400 women who gave birth to babies with NTDs or orofacial clefts with 6,100 ladies who gave birth to perfectly healthy babies.

As their research shows, ladies that followed a diet closely looking a little like the Mediterranean diet are less likely to have babies with birth problems. They were confirmed to be:

• 50% less certain to give birth to babies with anencephaly
• 34% less likely to have babies with cleft lip
• 26% less certain to have babies with cleft palate

All of these are documented in the October 2011 online edition of the Archives of Pediatrics and Teen Medication.

All these shows that a good, Mediterranean-like diet can do lots of good for you and your baby. Therefore if you actually want to give your baby a good head-start in life, make sure you do what’s best for her. And you can begin by eating a more fit diet.
Reference from http://www.pinoygigs.com/blog/tag/pregnant-women/and from newbiemommy.com.

Kitty Baker provides frequent tips and insights on pregnancyand maternity and gives a helpful reference ebook on achieving a healthy pregnancy diet.