MILLENNIUM BABY MOMS -- AND ALL WOMEN OF CHILDBEARING AGE -- SHOULD STOCK UP ON FOLIC ACID

"DO IT NOW AND DO IT WITH FOLIC ACID," says birth defects authority Gordon P. Oakley Jr., M.D., to all those women timing their pregnancies this week so as to delivery on New Year's Day 2000.

Three-fourths of the two most common and most tragic birth defects -- spina bifida (the leading cause of infant paralysis; it puts children in wheelchairs) and anencephaly (a fatal disorder and a major contributor to infant mortality) -- may be prevented with folic acid supplementation, says Dr. Oakley, visiting professor of epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University and former director of the division of birth defects and developmental disabilities of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Women of childbearing age should be taking 400 micrograms of "synthetic" folic acid a day ­ the amount present in any usual multivitamin, Dr. Oakley says.

"Since half of all pregnancies are unplanned, taking folic acid via multivitamins on a regular basis is important for all women of children-bearing potential," he says.

Since 1990, nearly 300 children in Georgia have been born with spina bifida or anencephaly; the vast majority of these children would have been born healthy had their mothers received folic acid.