Spina Bifida

Spina Bifida is a birth defect which occurs when a infant's spinal cord fails to develop properly and is often associated with a sac like bulge on the back. This external sac that, while not all, but most cases of Spina Bifida will have contains the elements of a spinal cord in a non complete fashion.Spina Bifida is also a neural tube defect, and can come in different severitites. There is no sure known cause of Spina Bifida, and many factors are being taken into account when it comes to research, but a consistent occurence that coincides with Spina Bifida is a deficiency in folic acid, so while it isnt known for sure, that is a possible contributer to Spina Bifida. Due to lack of knowledge about the cause of Spina Bifida, a prevention method is hard to come up with, but a rather consistent recommendation is to ensure that the mother is intaking enough folic acid during pregnancy. Discussing this
Prenatal screenings, the Maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein or MSAFP test, along with other blood tests, amniocentesis and sonograms can all help a mother detect earlier on if there child will be born with Spina Bifida, but while it will be caught most of them time, it isnt a gurantee and there is always a chance it can go undetected. If the defect isnt figured out before birth, there are easier and harder ways of detection. In cases of a child with either the meningocele and myelomeningocele form of Spina Bifida, as they will have a sac like structure on their spines that contains part of the non-fully formed spine. In milder cases are harder to identify but could be identified by an abnormality of the skin or the spine such as a tuft of hair, pit, or markings. Another detection method is through X-Rays, or later on affects of Spina Bifida, such as difficulty walking, could lead to detection later on in