Sir, – It has long been known that in Ireland we have had a high incidence of spina bifida/ hydrocephalus, a condition which causes a serious disability.
For many years it has been recognised that if a mother’s diet is deficient in the vitamin folic acid in early pregnancy there is an increased risk of defective closure in the neural tube of the developing embryo resulting in her child having spina bifida and/or hydrocephalus.
Recent work by Dervla Kelly and her colleagues in Trinity College working on the Growing up in Ireland Project has demonstrated that the risk of having a child with cleft lip or cleft palate is more than four times higher if mothers do not take folic acid in the first three months of pregnancy (Front page, July 3rd).
The last government for various reasons decided against fortifying flour with folic acid, relying on women to take folic acid themselves, even though 50 per cent of pregnancies in Ireland are unplanned.
Once we had a Health Education Bureau but that was subsumed into the Department of Health years ago. The bureau used to run campaigns regarding the advisability of women who were hoping to become pregnant taking folic acid but the last one seems to have been in 2005.
Seeing that we now have further evidence of the importance of this vitamin to the health of Irish children, I call on the Department of Health to run a public information campaign on the issue. Much of the previously used advertisements are still relevant and could be used to save money. – Yours, etc,