Dear Family and Friends..

I can't believe how little my family and friends have learned from my experience with Isabella. I only know of one family member who is taking folic acid now. It saddens me. I had hoped that at least losing Isabella would help prevent it from happening to someone else. So I am going to try and stress yet again how important it is. If you are in your child bearing years you NEED to being taking folic acid, even if you aren't trying to get pregnant. It needs to be taken for at least 3 months before you get pregnant to have it build up in your system and if you wait until you are pregnant it is too late to prevent an open neural tube defect. It happens so early in the pregnancy, most of the time before you even know you are pregnant.

If you are related to someone who has had a baby with a NTD(neural tube defect) then you are more likely yourself to have one. If you are a girl dating/married to a guy who is related to someone who has had a baby with it you are still more likely to have a baby with one. TAKE YOUR FOLIC ACID! It isn't that hard. You can get a prescription from your doctor or buy it yourself over the counter. Talk to your doctor, you may need a higher dose than the average person if again you are related to someone who has had a baby with it.

Even if you aren't related to someone who had a baby with it you should still be taking folic acid. It can happen to anyone. Before Isabella there was no other baby in my family who had this, that we know of. If I had known about folic acid and how important it was during the 1st few weeks of pregnancy this might not have happened to her. I just don't understand why anyone wouldn't want to prevent this, all it takes is taking a pill or pills! It isn't that hard.

Again if you are in your child bearing years, aka are having a period, then TAKE YOUR FOLIC ACID! If you are male then make sure your girlfriend/wife is taking it! Again even if you are on BC or not sexually active you still need to take it!! Over 50% of pregnancies are accidents, why take the chance???

Don't let Isabella's life mean nothing. Let her help you all in preventing it from happening to you!