Every woman considering, planning or hoping for a pregnancy needs to know about folic acid—a B vitamin that can prevent birth defects.

Folic acid (as it is known in its synthetic form), helps the body build new hair, nails and skin cells. In a developing baby, folic acid (which is naturally found in folate), contributes to the healthy formation of the skull and spine.

The problem is that this B vitamin can be hard to come by. Folate naturally occurs in foods like beans, such as lentils and soybeans; nuts, such as sunflower seeds; and leafy greens, such as spinach. But most women do not absorb enough folic acid daily to meet their own needs—let alone enough to meet the exhaustive needs of a growing baby.

A deficiency of folic acid or folate in a pregnant woman can result in birth defects such as spina bifida or anencephaly, in which the baby’s spine and skull are not properly developed.

And here’s the scary part: We, as Hispanic women, have between 30 and 40% higher risk of having a child affected by spina bifida or anencephaly, compared with other women. We also have lower blood folate levels and studies show that we’re less likely to eat foods fortified with folic acid.

Now the good news: It’s nothing that a daily multivitamin and a little careful attention to our diet can’t cure.

Folic Acid: Fortify Yourself

When the connection between birth defects and folic acid deficiency was proved, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decided, back in 1996, to begin artificially enriching grains and many breakfast cereals with folic acid. That means that today it’s relatively easy to find foods fortified with folic acid on grocery store shelves.

(The difference between naturally-occurring folic acid and its synthetic version comes down to absorption. Synthetic folic acid used in enriched foods and supplements has a simpler chemical structure, which makes it twice as easy for the body to absorb than its natural counterpart.)

If you’re thinking about having children or if you might become pregnant, health organizations recommend you take 400 micrograms of folic acid daily, which is the amount found in most multivitamin supplements. (However, some women may need even more folic acid, so it’s important to consult with your doctor.)

The insistence on taking folic acid at the mere possibility of pregnancy has to do with the way folic acid works in a baby’s development. A developing fetus needs enough folic acid in the first days and weeks after conception, so if you wait until you realize you’re pregnant (perhaps weeks or a month into your pregnancy), it may already be too late.

Research tells us that if all women who could possibly become pregnant were to take enough folic acid, we could cut the risk of birth defects by up to 70%.

Enriched Cereals

Besides taking a multivitamin, there are cereals and grains you can add to your diet that can help boost your intake of folic acid (also known as vitamin B-9).

Check out some of the breakfast cereals fortified with this all-important B vitamin:

General Mills cereals including Multibran Chex, Wheat Chex, Multi-Grain Cheerios and Raisin Bran

Kashi's Heart to Heart cereal

Kellogg’s All-Bran, All-Bran Complete Wheat Flakes, Low-Fat Granola, Product 19, Mueslix and Special K

And Quaker Oats brand cereals including Cap'n Crunch Original, Honey Graham OH!s, Squares Brown Sugar and Quisp.

There are also many brands of rice that have been fortified with folic acid, including Uncle Ben’s, Mahatma, Minute and Goya brands.

(One thing to remember: The enrichment mixture of vitamins, including folic acid, is applied to rice as a coating. Goya recommends on its web site that, in order to retain the added vitamins, you shouldn’t rinse rice before or after cooking.)