Getting enough calories and nutrients while receiving chemotherapy can help you with the following: 1  Feel better. 2  Maintain strength and energy. 3  Maintain weight.  Tolerate treatment-related side 1  effects. Decrease the risk of infection.  Heal and recover more 1  quickly. Boost your immunity.
Causes of Spina bifida. Spina bifida is a birth defect due to unknown causes in most situations. However, research shows that a deficiency of folic acid during early pregnancy can play a role in neural tube development. In addition, a family history of spina bifida increases the probability of the birth defect.
Spina bifida is part of a group of birth defects called neural tube defects. The neural tube is the embryonic structure that eventually develops into the baby's brain and spinal cord and the tissues that enclose them. Normally, the neural tube forms early in the pregnancy and closes by the 28th day after conception. In babies with spina bifida, a portion of the neural tube fails to develop or close properly, causing defects in the spinal cord and in the bones of the spine.