Case Study 3: Prenatal Pills Just after her friends Brian and Laura went to see

Question

Case Study 3: Prenatal Pills

Just after her friends Brian and Laura went to see Dr. Franco, Vera Smith found out she was pregnant. She was 33 and single. She knew that she should see a physician right away but her hectic schedule was a problem. Her friends told her to eat right and not take any medications, not even aspirin, since it may hurt the fetus.

When Vera was almost three months pregnant, her mother called from Arizona and reminded Vera that she should see a physician for prenatal care. Vera got Dr. Franco’s number from Laura and went to see him. At her appointment, the nurse asked if she was taking folic acid and Vera very proudly admitted that she was not. She didn’t want to take anything because she didn’t want to hurt the baby. The nurse pointed to a sign that all pregnant women should take folic acid to rude the chance of the baby being born with spina bifida. Vera wondered what that meant and the nurse gave her a pamphlet to read about nutrition, folic acid, and pregnancy.

Read up on spina bifida (SB) being a multifactorial trait (environmental + genetic component) and answer the following questions.

1. Should Vera be skeptical about the use of folic acid because the way it acts has yet to be discovered?

2. Should Vera take the folic acid pills even though she’s 3 months pregnant?

3. Many dietary supplements that were once considered good for us have been have been shown to be either useless or harmful. Is it possible that this may be the case with folic acid? Should this influence Vera’s decision? Why or why not?

4. How much research should Vera do if she decides to take folic acid?

5. Suppose that Vera had taken folic acid but her child is born with SB. What should she do? List 4 things.

Explanation / Answer

1)yes vera be skeptical about the use of folic acid

2)no

3)because she is pregnent she used to take all the medical advices given to her.

In case she is not pregnent there will be no use of that folic acid

4)she read the pamplet given by the nurse

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