Pregnant mom's exposure to secondhand smoke harms baby

EurekAlert: Health-e, 17 September 2012
 
Newborns that have been exposed to nicotine from mothers who smoke or who were exposed to secondhand smoke show poor physiological, sensory, motor and attention responses, according to a recent study published in the journal Early Human Development.

Smoking during pregnancy has been linked to many different problems in infants, including learning difficulties, attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity and even obesity.
 
The scientists from the Behaviour Evaluation and Measurement Research Centre (CRAMC) of the Rovira i Virgili University in Spain evaluated the behaviour of 282 healthy newborns using the Neonatal Behavioural Evaluation Scale - which looks at a newborn's behaviour and response between 48 and 72 hours after birth.

From the mothers studied, 22 percent smoked during pregnancy and 6 percent were exposed to passive smoking. Out of the smoking mothers, 12.4 percent had between one and five cigarettes a day; 6.7 percent had between 6 and 10 a day; and 2.8 percent had between 10 and 15 a day.

"Newborns who have had intrauterine exposure to nicotine, whether in an active or passive way, show signs of being more affected in terms of their neuro-behavioural development.

"This could be an indicator of pathologies, independent of socio-demographic, obstetric and paediatric factors," explained Josefa Canals and Carmen Hernández, the lead authors of the study.

The results reveal that children of passive smoking mothers have poor motor development and those of smoking mothers have less ability to regulate behaviour and response in physiological, sensor, motor and attention terms.

"Health professionals should encourage future mothers and their families to eliminate or reduce tobacco consumption," said Canals, who outlines the importance of informing mothers on the effects of involuntary exposure to cigarette smoke in order to prevent direct damage to the foetus and infant development.

Smoking during pregnancy is one of the biggest yet changeable causes of illness and death for both mother and infant. Nonetheless, epidemiological studies show that between 11 percent and 30 percent of pregnant women smoke or are passively exposed to tobacco smoke.

When a pregnant woman smokes, nicotine concentrations in the foetus reach more than 15 percent of that of the mother.