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Folic acid is essential for the production of healthy red blood cells, which carry oxygen around the body. We are constantly making and replacing our red blood cells: it has been estimated that, on average, an adult makes more than 120 million new red blood cells every minute throughout their lives. Hence deficiency of folic acid means that an insufficient number of red blood cells are produced, leading to problems such as anaemia.

Folic acid is also known to reduce the risk of certain abnormalities in the baby known as neural tube defects, of which spina bifida (which in its severe form can be seriously dangerous for the baby), is perhaps the best known. All babies are potentially at risk of spina bifida, or other neural tube defects such as hydrocephalus, whatever the mother’s age and whether or not this is a first or a subsequent pregnancy.

The neural tube is the part of the developing baby that eventually becomes the brain and the spinal cord. It forms at about four weeks after conception or about two weeks from the time of a missed period. Research has shown that sufficient folic acid in the mother’s blood is essential for normal formation of the neural tube. Interestingly, in the USA, folic acid has been added to all flour for bread and pasta from 1998. Since that time, the number of babies with neural tube defects has fallen by almost 20 per cent. There is also some evidence that suggests that adequate folic acid intake might help prevent problems such as small-for-dates babies.