According to a recent study conducted on 73,000 Norwegian women, the consumption of folate during pregnancy did not help in reducing the rate of premature births.

"[Our] data do not support a protective effect of folate on spontaneous preterm delivery frequency, but folate does not seem to have an adverse effect on pregnancy either," said study author Dr. Verena Sengpiel, from the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Goteborg, Sweden.

This latest finding stands in contrast to a previous finding in which experts believed that the usage of this drug actually helps in prevention of neural tube defects.

Folate is a vitamin which is naturally available in leafy green vegetables, broccoli, black beans, melon and peanuts. Other than this breads and cereals are also known to be rich in folic acid.

This study was conducted on 72,989 children and 955 cases were found having spontaneous preterm birth. The findings suggest that most of the women in Norway are deficient in folate because foods aren't fortified in Norway as they are in the United States.

Dr. Peter Bernstein, a Professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology and women's health at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, seemed quite unsure when he said that it was an interesting study but he was really not sure whether this study will lay to rest the idea that folate might reduce the risk of preterm birth.