Quitting Smoking in Early Pregnancy Benefits Baby’s Growth
Women who quit smoking early in their pregnancies have the same low risk of premature birth and small babies as non-smokers, according to new research.
Women who failed to stop smoking by 15 weeks were three times more likely to give birth before their full 37-week term, said lead author Lesley McCowan, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Smokers were twice as likely to have relatively small babies as women who stopped, the researchers found.
Previous studies have shown that women who smoke during pregnancy have an increased risk of miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth and are more likely to have smaller babies. The research published today in the British Medical Journal is the first study to determine whether babies may develop and grow normally in the womb if their mothers quit smoking early.
“The adverse effects of smoking on these late pregnancy outcomes may be largely reversible if smoking is stopped early in pregnancy, offering an important incentive for pregnant women who smoke to stop,” McCowan wrote.
The costs of maternal and infant complications due to smoking during pregnancy were estimated to exceed $1.4 billion in 1995 in the U.S., McCowan wrote, citing data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. More than 90 percent of the costs for infants are attributable to care for those with low birth weight during the first year of life.
2,500 Mothers
McCowan compared birth weight and prematurity in infants born to 2,500 Australians and New Zealanders who smoked, quit smoking or didn’t smoke. In addition to the benefits for babies, mothers who quit weren’t more stressed, anxious or depressed than those who continued to smoke.
Providers of maternity care need to emphasize to women the major benefits of giving up smoking before 15 weeks in pregnancy, McCowan wrote. Still, the results don’t justify relaxing efforts to assist pregnant women to quit smoking later in pregnancy, she added.
“Improved pregnancy outcomes have been reported in women who stop by as late as 32 weeks’ gestation,” McCowan wrote. “Moreover, stopping smoking at any gestation in pregnancy, if sustained in the postpartum period, has enormous additional benefits on newborn and child health.”
Source: Bloomberg
