Fortifying grain foods with the B vitamin folic acid has saved about 1,300 babies every year from being born with serious birth defects of the brain and spine known as neural tube defects , according to new data published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report .The number of babies born in the United States with these conditions has declined by 35 percent since 1998. About 3,000 pregnancies in the U.S. still are affected by NTDs annually.