Fortified bread to help prevent spina bifida
Bread could be fortified with folic acid to give Irish babies a better chance of being born without spina bifida.
Ireland has one of the highest rates of the condition in the world, with one in 1,000 newborns suffering from incomplete development of the spinal cord.
Shani Williamson, of the Irish Association for Spina Bifida, said the Food Safety Authority is to recommend the move to include folic acid in bread to benefit new arrivals.
“The misconception is that folic acid is just a vitamin for pregnant women, but 50% of pregnancies in Ireland are unplanned so it’s not just the women who are planning on becoming pregnant that we need to target. It’s all women of child-bearing age,” she said.
“Ireland has one of the highest rates in the world. With one in every thousand births in Ireland, the baby is born with a form of neural tube defect such as spina bifida.
“We believe if they do fortify the bread, it would be a very positive action in helping to try and reduce these instances.”
Spina bifida is the most common neural tube defect (NTD), which causes incomplete development of the spinal cord.
It is recommended that women take folic acid before and in the early weeks of pregnancy for the unborn child’s neural development.
Although an exact cause is not yet known, taking folic acid every day has been proved to reduce the chances of having a baby suffering from the condition by 71%.
The Irish Association for Spina Bifida remains committed to educating all women of child-carrying age, even those in schools and colleges, of the benefits of the vitamin.
“It’s very hard for a woman to actually monitor how much folic acid she has eaten in her diet,” Ms Williamson, a family support worker, continued.
“Even if she has a great diet and lots of fruit and vegetables, and even if she is eating fortified bread, it is still very difficult for her to get her full amount of folic acid.
“Lots of foods available on the Irish market are already fortified with the vitamin and any move to help decrease the chances of instances of spina bifida is a positive move.
“We are recommending that the Government still continues with health promotion campaigns to encourage women to take a supplement each day,” she told RTÉ Radio.
