Fortified Masa Flour Could Lower Risk of Birth Defects in Hispanic Babies

Hispanics are the largest and fastest growing ethnic minority group in the United States, as per the U.S. Census Bureau, and as such, the community also has one of the highest birth rates with 11.8 Hispanic women of childbearing age. But there's an unsettling new pattern being observed in births: many Hispanic women are giving birth to children with neural tube defects.

According to the March of Dimes Special Report -- titled Maternal and Infant Health in US Hispanic Populations: Prematurity and Related Health Indicators -- Hispanic women have a higher probability than Caucasian and black women to give birth to babies with the birth defect due to dietary intake. Specifically, since corn masa flour is not fortified with folic acid, it increases a pregnant woman's risk of giving birth to a child with neural tube defects like spina bifida and anencephaly. The lack of fortification in corn masa flour, coupled with the fact that Hispanic expecting mothers are less likely to take a multivitamin supplement with folic acid, offers a possible explanation for the association found.

"This is why the March of Dimes is striving to have masa cornmeal fortified with folate," said Dr. Diana Ramos, an associate clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles, to WebMD. "Corn masa flour is not part of the standard American diet, so, since 2012, we've been working on this, making progress slowly."

For the past two years, there has been a petition by March of Dimes calling for corn masa to be fortified with folic acid. But the petition is pending at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) despite the fact that the small change could have a significant impact -- There are still 3,000 babies born each year with the defects and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that Hispanic women are 20 percent more at risk.

But that's not all! The March of Dimes report also found that Hispanic women were more likely to give birth prematurely (before the 37th week of pregnancy) and are more likely to not have health insurance. Additionally, Hispanic mothers are three times as likely as Caucasian mothers to be younger than 17 years old and are less likely to have graduated from high school.