A new study found that pregnant women who are non-smokers but breathe in the smoke passively are raised risk of delivering defective babies. The adverse effects of smoking during pregnancy are already known. However the latest British study found that women exposed to passive smoking in pregnancy have twenty-three percent raised risks of stillbirths.
These women are thirteen percent more prone to giving births to infants having other birth related flaws. In a bit to analyze the effects of passive smoking in pregnancy, study team investigated statistics of earlier nineteen studies from North America, South America, Asia and Europe, done on associations between secondhand smoke and miscarriages, newborn deaths and birth defects of the fetus.
The combined study showed rise in birth defects and higher rate of mortality in infants of women who had been exposed to tobacco during pregnancy, though there was no single birth defect which saw a huge rise due to passive smoking. None of women in study smoked while pregnant.
However, they were exposed to secondhand smoking either from colleagues or family members. In more than half of the cases, father were the primary cause of secondhand smoke, informed the team. According experts although the dangers of secondhand smoke were established by the current study but no proper proof on stillbirths and birth defects found.
According to lead author by Prof. Jo Leonardi-Bee from the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies at the University of Nottingham in England, mothers’ smoking during pregnancy is well-renowned as hauling a series of serious health threats for the unborn baby counting fetal mortality, low birth weight, premature birth and a sequence of serious birth defects like cleft palate, club foot and heart problems.
She added that since passive smoking engrosses exposure to the same variety of tobacco toxins experienced by active smokers, although at lower levels, it is probable that coming into contact with secondhand smoke also augments the risk of some of all of these complications. Father should be discouraged from smoking around their pregnant wives considering the possible risks associated with it.