Teleton supports the rehabilitation and integration of children and young people with disabilities.   However, the long waiting list that exists in the Teleton Rehabilitation Centers and the huge amount of disabled children that are born each year in Mexico, required Teleton Foundation to develop campaigns and programs to prevent more children´s disabilities.

The Secretary of Health and Teleton combined efforts since August of 2006 to run a campaign for women of fertile age to consume folic acid. This campaign consists in the distribution of folic acid medication to different institutions from the health sector with the following objectives:

• To avoid birth of more disabled children.
• To inform and prevent.
• To make women more aware of the importance of the folic acid consumption during the first weeks of pregnancy. This is when the neural tube is developed.

Folic acid is a B complex vitamin that helps prevent fetal malformations related to the brain and the spinal marrow, known as defects of the neural tube. If a woman consumes folic acid before the pregnancy it´s possible to obtain an optimal development of the tube during the first 28 days after conception.

The appropiate consumption of folic acid in women of fertile age plays an important role in the multiplication of cells.

The folic acid helps to prevent cardiovascular diseases it helps increase appetite with the purpose of obtaining a greater percentage of the nutrients, it estimulates the formation of digestive acids, it also fortifies the growth of tissues and it reduces the probabilities of neck, uterus and colon cáncers.

One of the most severe congenital defects is in the neuronal tube.  Spinabifida is considered the most important cause of a child disability, it affects the spine and in some cases the spinal marrow, it can cause hidrocefalia, this is the accumulation of fluid in the brain.

A woman with low folic acid levels display greater probabilities of giving birth to a premature baby with low weight, which could cause other disabilities like anencefalia this consists of the underdevelopment of the skull and the brain of new born baby, as well as the cleft lip, cleft palate and heart diseases.

We can find folic acid in citric vegetables, fruits, juice, fiber, grains, green leaf vegetables, chicken and pork, liver and seafood. However, pregnant women require additional supplements of this vitamin and a balanced diet that takes care of the growth of the baby in the womb. 

Teleton Rehabilitation Centers want to advise women of the importance of taking folic acid during the first weeks of pregnancy.