Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: Shaul on 16/05/2008 12:52:13
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My daughter smoke and plan to have a baby. She claim there is no real scientific real proof that smoking before being pregnant is dangerous to the child.
Can someone help me and give a reference to a big ( many persons ) research which does proof it?
thank you
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Evidence has shown that women who smoke whilst they are pregnant have a 25% higher risk of giving birth to a stillborn baby. The more cigarettes that are smoked, the higher the risk.
There is an 82% chance of giving birth to a baby with a lower birth weight. Many mothers wrongly believe that giving birth to a lighter baby will mean an easier birth, however this is by no means the case. Giving birth to a low-weight baby can bring with it no end of complications and health problems for the child.
Low-weight babies can be expected to have severe health problems such as breathing disorders, bronchitis and ear infections especially in the first two years of their life. They are more likely to be admitted into intensive care after being born and could even face being disabled. Some may even die shortly after birth.
According to statistics, 20 - 30% of the babies who are born with a low birth weight do so because their mother smoked throughout pregnancy. Giving birth to a low-weight baby may have long-lasting negative effects on the child's growth and development. A premature birth can also result in a low birth weight baby and smoking increases this risk by around 30%.
Low-weight babies usually weight around 250 g less than a normal and healthy baby. Newborns who weigh in at less than 5½ pounds could suffer from birth defects such as a cleft lip or a cleft palate. This is more likely if the mother smokes over 20 cigarettes a day. They could even be born with severe disabilities like cerebral palsy or they could have problems with their spinal cord, ears or eyes.
http://www.helpwithsmoking.com/smoking-and-pregnancy/smoking-breastfeeding-birth.php
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That's about smoking while pregnant, he meant smoking before being pregnant. As long as she quits smoking before she starts trying to get pregnant I wouldn't think it would have an adverse effect on the baby, but it obviously helps to have as healthy a mother as possible.
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Unless I'm missing something here I understand that lots of women are pregnant, at least for a while, before they know it. Unless they quit smoking before trying to get pregnant they would end up smoking while pregnant which is undesirable.
That's before you look into the fact that quitting is difficult, being pregnant can me problematic too. Why not get used to one thing at a time?
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Well given that during the great wars and the many years that followed them women and men smoked like the troupers, in fact the armed forces used to give out cigarettes to the forces A lot of people have forgotten this.
Yet women got pregnant and carried on smoking and these tobacco reared children don't appear to be affected by the ordeal of mum being a smoker.
Logically though smoking can't be any good for either mum or her baby/s but it is an interesting point that needs to be looked into.
And far from there being a lot of still born babies we had a population explosion following World War 2
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It isn't the general idea of the armed forces to keep people alive. If they wanted to do that they wouldn't put them where they get shot at.
There will have been lots of children born to smoking mothers . The stats show that these children were generally a little less healthy than those whose mothers didn't smoke.
Nobody said smoking while pregnant will kill the baby; they just said it's statistically better not to.
As for "And far from there being a lot of still born babies we had a population explosion following World War 2" well, a lot of couples were inconvenienced in terms of procreation by the husband being away being shot at.
Also many people thought that life was tricky enough with the war going on so they postponed starting a family. Yet more might have decided to celebrate the outbreak of peace by having sex.
Probably not a lot to do with smoking really.
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My daughter smoke and plan to have a baby. She claim there is no real scientific real proof that smoking before being pregnant is dangerous to the child.
Can someone help me and give a reference to a big ( many persons ) research which does proof it?
thank you
smoking has thousands of chemical effect, and the scientists proved, there is no turn back, it affects the pregant lady....
It should be avoided.. it can cause disease for the child...
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I think she may have had the baby by now Raghavendra!