- Maintain a healthy weight.
- Engage in physical activity regularly.
- If you need to gain or lose weight, do so gradually (no more than 1–2 lbs/week).
- If you are trying to become pregnant and you ordinarily drink alcoholic beverages, stop drinking or cut back on the amount you drink.
- If you smoke, quit or cut back to improve your health.
- To minimize your risk of having an infant with a neural tube defect, eat a highly fortified breakfast cereal that provides 100% of the Daily Value (DV) for folate (read the food label to find out) or take a vitamin supplement that provides 400 µg/day of folic acid. Folic acid, the synthetic form of folate, is obtained only from fortified foods or vitamin supplements. It is not yet known whether naturally occurring folate is as effective as folic acid in the prevention of neural tube defects.
References:
Nutrition National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health under its cooperative agreement (MCU-119301) with the Maternal and Child Heath Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration, Public Health Service, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Update for Nutrition During Pregnancy and Lactation. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 1998.
