Reducing Smoking During Pregnancy Improves Newborn B. Weight
I thought we all 'knew" this but a report in the November ACOG journal shows that "Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of preterm birth, placental abruption, placenta previa, and low birth weight. Infants born with low birth weight (less than 5 ½ lbs) are at high risk for illnesses, even into adulthood. Other risk factors for low birth weight include maternal body mass index, the number of previous births, and preterm birth.
Researchers studied data on 160 women in Vermont who were enrolled in a university-based outpatient research clinic for smoking cessation and relapse prevention during pregnancy and postpartum between June 2001 and February 2003. After controlling for other known risk factors for low birth weight, including preterm birth, they found that the number of cigarettes a woman smoked in the third trimester directly correlated with newborn birth weight. For every cigarette smoked on a daily basis in the third trimester, there was a corresponding estimated reduction of 27 grams in newborn birth weight. "