Senior resident, Neurosurgery Unit of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Dickson Bandoh, has shared all there is to know about Spina Bifida and how to detect it.
Explaining what exactly the condition is he shared, “The reason why normal people can walk normally is that our spines are well-formed, if you are to feel your back, you will realize that they are bones there covered nicely by masculine skin. What happens to children with this condition is that their spines were developing but did not develop fully so their ability to walk later in life is affected”.
He further explained that spinal Bifida simply talks about when one spine, rather than closing up like what other human beings have does not but rather, closes up fully and, “the outer effect is usually what we see in the children who come to us”.
Talking about when this condition can be detected in an interview with Eunice Tornyi on e.TV Ghana’s African Women’s Voices he said, “The spine develops within the first month of life and your brain develops when your spine begins to develop. One of the key things for spine and brain development is folic acid and this often happens when the mother lacks folic acid”.
According to him, a lot of women, do not know within the first months of their pregnancies that they are pregnant and by the time they are conscious or find out they are pregnant to take folic acid, the child might already have the condition.
He noted that normally, the development of the child starts during the first month of pregnancy and if the child does not get the folic acid during this stage, “It will be a bit too late for them to benefit from the folic acid when the mother starts taking it”.
He however stated that, if the woman is pregnant and does a scan in the mid-trimester and late trimester it will be easy for them to pick it up and find an early solution to it.
“Unfortunately in the typical Ghanaian environment, women will want to wait till their 6th, 7th or 8th months to begin to attend the antenatal clinic or to begin to do these scans and by the time we realize they already have this pathology,” he said.
He emphasized that if the condition is not detected on time, and it goes into the pregnancy, certain decisions the mother or the couple can take will be very well demanding.
“So it can be detected in pregnancy but only when the mothers take the antenatal scans in the mid and late trimester because that will even influence the mode of delivery for the baby for instance” he added.
Dickson however advised that ideally, it is advisable for every one woman to start the intake of folic acid when they decide to have a baby.
“Every woman should have folic acid in her diet especially in her reproductive age and if you are planning on getting pregnant, the best thing is to start taking folic acid even before you decide to get pregnant but in a situation where you realize you did not know you were pregnant till after the pregnancy, seek medical attention,” he highlighted.
By: Gyamfuah Owusu-Ackom