How long in advance should you take folic acid to prepare for pregnancy

Preparing for pregnancy is a very important matter for female friends, which is related to the future health of the baby, so it must not be taken carelessly. Folic acid must be taken when preparing for pregnancy, but many female friends often don’t know when to take it. So how long in advance should you take it if you are preparing for pregnancy? Why do some say that you should take it three months in advance? Does this statement make sense? The editor will give you answers one by one below.

If you are preparing for pregnancy, it is best to take folic acid tablets orally three months in advance. However, even if you do not take them three months in advance, it does not matter as long as you can insist on taking folic acid tablets during the first three months of pregnancy. If you do not get pregnant, you can continue to take them as long as you are preparing for pregnancy.

Why should you take folic acid three months in advance when preparing for pregnancy?

Generally speaking, the folic acid in our normal human body and the folic acid in our daily acidic foods should be sufficient for the general population, but for high-risk patients, especially mothers who are preparing to get pregnant, we need a higher level of folic acid in the red blood cells in our body.

The main purpose is to prevent neural tube defects and other malformations in the fetus. So if we take 0.4 mg of folic acid once a day, it will take at least three months to raise the folic acid level in our red blood cells to a level that can prevent fetal malformations. Therefore, we generally recommend that you take 0.4 mg of folic acid orally starting three months before pregnancy.

If the vitamin preparations you take contain a relatively high level of folic acid, for example 0.8 mg, then according to previous research, you can take a multivitamin containing folic acid orally one month in advance, which can also increase the folic acid level in the red blood cells to a more effective concentration within a month.