Pregnant women who smoke have smaller babies

Summary of story from The Telegraph, cost July 7, try 2011

Women who smoke during their pregnancy are more likely to have smaller babies.

An in-depth study carried out at Southampton University, viagra 60mg England, has provided the first ‘hard evidence’ to prove this according to Professor Nick Macklon.

Over 50,000 pregnancies in the area of Southampton were monitored: the birth weights of newborns were noted and analysed comparatively against the smoking behaviour of their respective mothers.

Professor Macklon reported the team’s ‘overwhelming evidence’ to the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE).

He continued to explain that smoking during pregnancy ‘affects the transportation of nutrients, especially oxygen, across the placenta’ to the foetus.

There is a clear correlation between the weight of the child at birth and the number of cigarettes smoked during pregnancy. On average mothers who smoked over 10 per day gave birth to babies weighing less than 11oz (300g) those born to a non-smoking mother.

It has also been shown that smoking during the periconceptional stage can prove harmful to the baby.

These effects have long been publicised, yet over the last decade the behaviour of mothers-to-be has hardly changed.

WVoN comment: Hopefully these recent findings will be the discouragement needed to stop women smoking while pregnant.