Every year in the UK an estimated 700 to 900 pregnant women are told that their babies have a neural tube defect like spina bifida.

Some of these babies will die before they are born, others will die shortly after birth, and many who survive face a range of challenges that will test them to the limit.

Investigations funded by Action Medical Research in the 1970s and 80s by Professor Dick Smithells of the University of Leeds, were able to establish a link between taking vitamins, including folic acid, during and before pregnancy and neural tube defects such as spina bifida in babies.

The work paved the way for wider clinical studies which confirmed that folic acid reduced the risk of spina bifida. Today, women trying to become pregnant are routinely advised by health professionals around the world to take folic acid supplements.

Action Medical Research has continued to be involved in raising awareness among women of the need to begin taking folic acid supplements before starting a family and during early pregnancy to help give their babies the best start in life.