The Spina Bifida Association (SBA) has launched a new Public Service Announcement (PSA) that will run from June 1 to July 20 on the CBS “Super Screen” in the heart of the Times Square Plaza. The 15 second bilingual spot, “Give Your Baby a Healthy Start” sends SBA’s lifesaving prevention message about the benefits of taking a multivitamin with folic acid daily to women of childbearing age to reduce their risk of having a Spina Bifida affected birth.
“It is important for our organization and our chapters to communicate with women about the importance of including folic acid in their diet before conception, and this PSA does just that,” Cindy Brownstein, SBA’s president and chief executive officer, said in a news release.
Research indicates that if a woman takes 400 micrograms of folic acid daily before becoming pregnant and during the first 3 months of pregnancy, she can reduce the risk of having a neural tube defect affected pregnancy like Spina Bifida by up to 70%.
All women of childbearing age, especially Hispanic women who tend to have higher rates of Spina Bifida affected births, need to see this prevention message. Whether a woman plans to become pregnant or not, when she learns these eye-opening facts, she wants to know more about the birth defect and what to do to reduce her risk.
