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.