If You Want a Live Baby, Stop Smoking. Surprise!
By Robert Latkany, MDSeptember 23, 2009
I have become better at dodging plumes of smoke from those smokers who choose to smoke and walk in front of me. I time each exhalation and jolt in front of them to avoid any potential carcinogens with my next breath in. At least I have some control of the situation. Fetuses have no control of their pregnant smoking mothers.
Choosing to smoke to shorten your own life is one thing, but smoking while pregnant harms another. Johansson et al evaluated 555,046 live births and determined that stopping smoking for a second pregnancy leads to a reduction in the risk of infant mortality compared to the first (smoking) pregnancy. The fetuses of women who have never smoked fare even better.
If they are fortunate to survive past birth, infants of smokers are then found to be deficient in weight and head circumference, and these deficits remain at 6 months when compared to infants of nonsmokers according to Fenercioglu et al.
The physical “gift” that smoking mothers give their children isn’t the only present handed out at delivery. O’Callaghan et al determined that infants of smoking mothers were 1.5 times more likely to have nicotine dependence or withdrawal when they are 21 years of age. Smoking mothers give a gift that never stops giving, but in this case, the infant wishes they never opened the present.
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