When I was a young newlywed and ready to start a family, I knew that I needed to make sure my body was healthy and able to handle the strain of pregnancy. I limited processed foods and sugar in my diet, ate plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and took a multi-vitamin every day. And because I had done some research about pre-natal health, the vitamin I chose was Nestlé Materna, which contains thirteen essential vitamins including 1 mg of folic acid.

I’m not alone in my knowledge of the importance of folic acid during pregnancy. In fact, in the recent Nestlé Materna Pre-natal Poll of Canadian women, 91% of those polled knew pregnant women should take a multi-vitamin containing folic acid. But what many women don’t realize is that they should be taking that multi-vitamin before becoming pregnant as well. About half of all pregnancies are unplanned and often, women don’t know they are pregnant until they’ve missed their first period. But folic acid is especially important in the first four weeks of pregnancy in order to prevent Neural Tube Defects such as spina bifida.

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