How information in the prenatal period can positively influence the health and lifestyle choices of the pregnant woman and her family. It is a recognized certainty that nutrition is a fundamental requirement to support a healthy lifestyle and is also extremely valuable during recovery from illness or injury. Nutrients are absorbed into the body and this physiological process is essential for homeostasis and to ensure balance is maintained within the body as without sufficient food and drink the body will not function properly (Edwards & Thomas, 2009). This essay will provide information about folic acid and its properties, its role and the role and responsibility of the midwife in informing women in the early stages of pregnancy and the importance it has. An ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates, believed that any disease suffered by humans was due to their poor eating habits and poor nutritional intake and historically, hereditary implied that the health of a fetus and its future were determined by its genes at the time of conception, retrospective evidence suggests that with the lack of nutrition the fetus receives, it is a major contributing factor to future disease (Edwards & Thomas, 2009). Folic acid and folate are a B vitamin and an important part of your nutritional intake. B vitamins are a group of water-soluble vitamins that play an important role in cellular metabolism, while folic acid and folate are both forms of vitamin B9 (Barrowclough, 2009). They occur naturally in foods and can also be taken as supplements. Vitamin B performs a wide range of functions that occur biologically in the body, and during pregnancy an important factor of vitamin B9 is the production and maintenance of new cells. Vitamin B9 also... half of the paper...' Obstetrics (pages 184-195). Bath: The Bath Press. United States Preventive Services Task Force. (2009). Folic acid for prevention of neural tube defects: statement of recommendation from the United States Preventive Services Task Force. Annals of Internal Medicine, 150, 626–631. Wald, N. J. and Bower, C. (1995) Folic acid and the prevention of neural tube defects. British Medical Journal, 310,1019-1020.Werler M, Shapiro S, Mitchell A.(1993) Periconceptional exposure to folic acid and risk of neural tube defects. JAMA. ;269:1257Youngson, R. M. (2005). Encyclopedia of Family Health (3rd edition ed.). Tarrytown: Marshall Cavendish Corporation. Zeng, H. (2010). Optimizing nutrition for health and longevity. Bloomington: Liberty of Congress.http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jun/20/news/mn-12549http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/pregnancy/Pages/Folicacid.aspx accessed March 20 2010.