The Community of Madrid has started a campaign in health centers for women to plan and care for their pregnancy, reinforcing information to prevent spina bifida in pregnancy. In addition, the campaign will spread throughout Spain distributing posters with the message of prevention of spina bifida through folic acid.
The information campaign will be held in all health centers in the region to raise awareness about the prevention of this serious congenital disease, which can be prevented with proper care during pregnancy. The start of the preventive campaign took place on November 21 on the occasion of International Spina Bifida Day.
Remember that taking folic acid before and during pregnancy prevents spina bifida by 70%, and is also effective in preventing anencephaly, cleft lip and is effective in preventing delays in the baby's language.
The informative materials of this campaign have been made by the Federation of Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Associations, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and will be present in all health centers of the Community.
These focus on releasing a message of prevention to women of childbearing age, about the importance of planning pregnancy, and taking the dose of folic acid recommended to prevent possible defects of the spine in the closure of the neural tube during pregnancy ( spina bifida).
The incidence of spina bifida has decreased slightly in recent years thanks to the use of folic acid. The prevalence in Spain is 1.8% per 10,000 inhabitants of the population over 6 years. Thus 19,272 people have been treated for spina bifida and hydrocephalus, of which 62% are women and 38% are men.
The diagnosis of spina bifida is a prenatal diagnosis. Patients with spina bifida are treated by different specialists through fetal surgery and from birth, first by obstetricians and neonatologists, then they are operated before 24 hours by neurosurgeons, and then there is a lifelong follow-up by different specialists (neurosurgeons , traumatologists, urologists and rehabilitators).
A gesture as simple as taking folic acid during pregnancy can prevent spina bifida in the baby, and this is what this informative campaign wants to highlight, which we hope will take effect and extend as much as possible.
