How foods rich in folic acid prevent having deformed babies

FOR Chidinma Sunday, a 21-year-old living with spinal bifida, life no longer roves around the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba. He will soon resume at the Ben Idahosa University to read English.
Chidinma grew up at LUTH after he was abandoned by his parents because he was born with spinal bifida. Despite being on a wheelchair, he had his primary and secondary school education with support from the hospital and well wishers.
Spina bifida, a birth defect, occurs when the bones of the spine (vertebrae) do not form properly around part of the baby’s spinal cord. It can affect how the skin on the back looks. And in severe cases, it can make walking or daily activities hard to do without help.
“Life on a wheelchair has been challenging, but I have adapted to moving around and being independent. The LUTH premises had thought me a lot of things, including independence. My major challenge has been the toilet part of things because I had to depend on “something” to make sure I keep myself intact and that people around me do not get to know what I am carrying. But it has not been funny, honestly,” said Chidinma.
Daniel, also on a wheelchair, is a 15-year-old student of Divine Favour College, Lagos, who loves football. But he is unable to play with his two legs because he was also born with a birth defect that left him unable to walk.
Though, born with spinal bifida and in JSS3, Daniel’s condition has not stopped him being positive
about life. “I love football, reading and listening to music. My best subject in school is English.”
Hearing Festus talk from a distance, nobody would realise that he was born with a birth defect medically termed hydrocephalus. Often called “water on the brain,” hydrocephalus can cause babies’ and young children’s heads to swell to accommodate excess cerebral spinal fluid.
But Oreoluwa Kolawole and Haliya, also children born with spinal bifida, are not too different, even though they are one year and eight years old, respectively. Haliya’s mother always carries her on her back to help her move from one place to another, just like Oreoluwa’s mother because they cannot walk, either.
While Haliya’s parents had been threatened with quit notice because the landlord send her as a “strange” child, Oreoluwa was equally abandoned by her father because she was born with a defective spinal cord.
“Oreoluwa was born with a spina bifida and because of this, her father neglected her. I was the one that took care of her, including the surgeries to repair the spinal bifida. But when the spinal bifida was repaired she developed hydrocephalus. She has been in and out of the hospital after her birth because even when the hydrocephalus was repaired, the shunt kept leaking,” stated Mrs Kolawole.
Life for Oreoluwa’s mother, a business woman, has also not been easy, as she has to leave her other two children at home to ensure she takes care of Oreoluwa who, after her surgeries, still need to have physiotherapy.
Unfortunately, the burden of children born with birth defects is enormous and the number of children affected is large in Nigeria. Little wonder, American actor, Boris Kodjoe, also with an eight-year-old daughter with spinal bifida, took time out during his visit to host Nigeria’s Miss Pageant in Lagos to be educated about birth defects and know what Nigeria is doing about fortifying foods with folic acid, at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). He and his wife, actress Nicole Ari Parker, are advocates of quality care for children with spina bifida and for prevention efforts.
Sophie, their daughter, is a third grade student that speaks three languages. Boris Kodjoe, who explained that it is always hard situation when any parent is faced with birth defects like spinal bifida, stated: “It is catches you unawares and by surprises. There are so many things you do not know, you have to educate yourself and rely on doctors to figure out what good for your child because every case is different. There are so many challenges that come up when you are a parent of a child with spinal bifida.
“But a birth defect like spinal bifida is 75 per cent preventable and so, there is a need to raise awareness on the need for women to take folic acid, even before they are pregnant. Of course, other challenges are associated with birth defects such as wheelchairs, cauterization and the financial burden it places on the parents or the community.”
Children are the future of the world, and so “when born with birth defects, it is not really their fault,” says Mrs Onari Duke, wife of a former Cross River governor, Donald Duke. “It is therefore absolutely criminal for us to know that something is preventable and we are able to do something and yet do nothing.”
Mrs Duke, who reasoned that parents of children with birth defects face discomfort, inconvenience and loss of productivity, declared: “If what you and I can do is to create the awareness that with fortified food, birth defects like spinal bifida is preventable, then we should do that.
“We should advocate, encourage and ensure that the policy that has been made by government on food fortification with folic acid is actually implemented. We have to encourage the industry players to make sure that this is done. If a woman is having folic acid in her bread, pastries and so on, then it reduces her risk of given birth to a baby with a birth defect.
“By the time a woman begins to take folic acid or go for antenatal care to know that she is pregnant, the damage would have been done. So, the best option is to make sure that women have it in their system prior to even pregnancy.”
Mrs Duke, who runs a non-governmental organisation called Child Survival and Development Organisation of Nigeria, however, assured of the safety of folic acid fortification of food, saying that folic acid is part of the normal medications that pregnant women are asked to take at antenatal clinics.
President, Spina Bifida & Hydrocephalus Care Foundation of Nigeria, Mrs Olubunmi Lawal, stated that fortification of foods with folic acid was already being done in about 60 countries of the world, including South Africa. He said at least 73 out of every 1,000 newborn babies in Nigeria have one form of birth defect or the other.
“In Nigeria, almost 13,000 Nigerian new borns annually have spinal bifida and we have between 30 to 38 neurosurgeons to Nigeria’s 160 million population to help correct this defect surgically. So, it is a huge problem that every stakeholder need to ensure that our staple meals are fortified with folic acid.”
Mrs Lawal, who remarked that Nigeria’s lack of birth defects surveillance had made it impossible to track and plan properly for the prevention of babies being born with birth defects in the country, said enriching foods with folic acid will protect and promote healthy babies.
“We cannot afford taking care of a child with spinal bifida. The lifetime cost of a child with spinal bifida is approximated to be about N90 million and how many Nigerians can afford that, because they will undergo series of surgeries, rehabilitation and some of them are being discriminated? They are being rejected, some homes are broken because of their problem. So, we should say no to children being born with birth defects.”