Pregnant women urged to give up smoking before too late
Pregnant women urged to give up smoking
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Friday, 27, Mar 2009 07:44
Health experts have found women who give up smoking before the 15th week of their pregnancy can significantly reduce the health risks for their children.
Research published on BMJ online shows women who quit before the 'deadline' cut their risk of spontaneous premature birth and having small babies to the same as non-smokers.
However, those who don't give up before week 15 are three times more likely to give birth prematurely and twice as likely to have smaller weight babies compared to those who quit.
The results show that there were no differences between the rates of premature birth between stopped smokers and non-smokers, whereas current smokers had much higher risk. Similar results were revealed for expected baby size.
Researchers claim their study also showed the smoking status of the participants revealed social and health inequalities. Smokers were more likely to be single mothers, less well educated, unemployed, overweight or underweight, the author's claim.
They were also more likely to be drinking alcohol and less likely to be taking folic acid at 15 weeks of pregnancy.
In conclusion, the authors say that their results "are of considerable public health importance. The data suggest that the adverse effects of smoking on these late pregnancy outcomes may be largely reversible if smoking is ceased early in pregnancy, offering an important incentive for pregnant women who smoke to become smoke-free early in pregnancy".