Dr. Gittika Sharma

Folic acid is an important form of vitamin B which women must take during pregnancy. It is a form of man-made vitamin B known as folate. Folate plays a significant role in producing red blood cells and helps in the development of your baby’s neural tube into the brain and spinal cord, preventing any kind of birth defects in your baby. Birth defects of the brain or spinal cord may occur in early stages of pregnancy. Therefore, by the time a woman discovers her pregnancy, it may become too late to prevent the defects.

How much folic acid should be taken?

A woman should start taking folic acid within the first three to four weeks of pregnancy, as birth defects may occur during this time. Women who start taking folic acid a year before getting pregnant produce healthy babies without birth defects.

400 mcg of folic acid is the recommended dose for all women who are of childbearing age and also in the first trimester of pregnancy. Multivitamins with the recommended amount of folate and folic acid supplements are generally prescribed as they help the mother deliver a healthy child. From the fourth to ninth month of pregnancy, the dose must be increased to 600 mcg.

Benefits of Folic Acid-

Without sufficient folic acid in your body, the neural tube of your developing baby may not close properly. This may lead to neural tube defects, which include:

• Spina bifida, a condition where the spinal cord or vertebrae develop incompletely. A baby with spina bifida may be disabled permanently.

• Anencephaly, a condition that features incomplete development of the brain. Babies affected with anencephaly do not live long.

Having a sufficient supply of folic acid prevents these neural defects from developing in your baby.

Taking folic acid before and during pregnancy protects your baby against many other conditions. They include:

• Cleft lip and palate.

• Low weight during birth.

• Chances of miscarriage.

• Premature birth.

Folic acid also reduces the risk of developing pregnancy complications in the mother such as heart diseases, stroke, several cancers and Alzheimer’s disease.

Folic acid is naturally found in dark-green vegetables, which you must consume in abundance. Other sources of folic acid include fortified breakfast cereals, beef liver, lentils, egg noodles and great northern beans. If you wish to discuss any specific problem, you can consult a gynaecologist.

IVF or In Vitro Fertilization is a process wherein an egg is fertilized by a sperm in a laboratory dish to form the embryo (baby's first cell) which after growth in artificial medium in the lab is transferred into the uterus of women.

Reasons that make IVF a popular procedure:

1. Harvests multiple eggs: If you are planning to have more than one child, via IVF you can freeze multiple eggs for future use. Unused or spare embryos can be donated to medical organisations for research purposes or to another couple willing to have a child.IVF has proven successful in giving couples a wholesome and happy life.
2. High success rates: Women who underwent in vitro fertilisation using fresh embryos of their own fresh eggs, the projected live birth percentage was 32.2% for those under 35 years, 27.7% for women aged between 35 and 37 years, lowering to 5.0% in 43 to 44 year olds and 1.9% for ages above 45. It has been proved that a female's ability to conceive decreases with age. If infertility is detected at a younger age, the process of IVF is highly advantageous and successfully results in childbirth.
3. Proven track record: Technology has come a long way since the first baby via IVF Louise Brown was born in 1978 using a natural IVF. Medical techniques have advanced to create safer and successful treatment. The usage of the safest forms of IVF with low drug regimens today, have prevented side effects such as ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a gynaecologist.

Pregnancy is something, which is quite divisive. The mere prospect of it can really go a long way in scaring people. At the same time, for some others, giving birth to a baby can be the primary cause for a lot of happiness. When a couple is having trouble conceiving, infertility is usually the reason why there is a relationship strain between the two of them. Considering this, doesn’t it make sense to learn a bit about infertility and the truth to all that is said about it so as to separate the wheat from the chafe?

To start with, it is often said that when there is an infertility issue, it is probably due to the lack of fertility of the woman rather than the man. However, this is pretty untrue. It has been found that both men and women are responsible for infertility almost equally. In fact, according to a study, in about a fifth of the cases of infertility, the reason for it was that both the man and the woman were not fertile.

Many people say that, if a woman wishes to have a baby, she should do so before she crosses the age of 35. This is true to some extent as the chances of a woman conceiving do fall to a significant extent after the age of 35. As a matter of fact, a woman can expect to reach the peak of her fertility while she is in her twenties, itself!

Without a shadow of doubt, having sex around the time of ovulation is the key to getting pregnant. However, it is believed by a large number of people that there is no chance of getting pregnant if sex is had too soon or too late after ovulation as sperms only live for a few hours after an intercourse. The truth is that the sperms have the ability to live for several days.

When planning to conceive, many women believe that for about a quarter of a year or three months after they stop making use of the birth control pill, they will not be able to get pregnant. The good news for them is that as soon as the pill is stopped, the levels of a woman’s hormones return back to their pre-pill levels almost immediately and ovulation can be expected to occur at the time of their following cycle. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a gynaecologist.

Contraception refers to something, which works to prevent a pregnancy from occurring. But what is emergency contraception? This sort of contraception is made use of in case other methods of birth control do not work or a woman has had unprotected sex.

This sort of contraception is also referred to as the morning after pill and postcoital contraception, which effectively means that it is taken after sex. Well, if while having sexual intercourse, there is a breakage of the condom or it slips off the penis, then it is a good idea to make use of emergency contraceptives, as should a woman if it so happens that she misses two or more birth control pills over the course of her monthly cycle.

While it is true that a large majority of emergency contraceptives, which are available in the market today are in the form of pills, note that this is not the only form of emergency contraception. As a matter of fact, copper containing intra uterine devices (IUDs) happen to be the most effective way to prevent a pregnancy from occurring, but this is only true if they are fitted within five days of unprotected sex. Again, even in this case, the sooner, the better!

Most people believe that an emergency contraceptive is almost always successful in ending a pregnancy. This is quite inaccurate as the main intention of an emergency contraceptive is not to end a pregnancy, but to prevent it from happening in the first place. This is exactly why it is so essential to have an emergency contraceptive pill after sex as soon as possible. The longer a woman delays, the higher the risk of fertilisation taking place and pregnancy then being left to be a foregone conclusion.

It is important to keep in mind that emergency contraception is not a substitute for taking precautions when it comes to sex. As a matter of fact, it can be said that there is no substitute for being responsible and making use of condoms or birth-control pills in a prudent way. After all, who wants to have the stress and the repercussions of a potential unwanted pregnancy? It makes quite a bit of sense to take some extra care so that there is no need for anxiety, as it isn’t really required and sex remains as much fun as intended! If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a gynaecologist and ask a free question.