Doctors are urging mothers-to-be to give up cigarettes after new research linked smoking in pregnancy to babies suffering birth defects such as clubfoot, missing limbs and deformed limbs.
Those who smoke while expecting a baby increase the risk of their child being born with a serious malformation by as much as 50%, the study found. The disclosure led to calls for new measures to reduce what the authors called "staggeringly high" levels of smoking among pregnant women.
Although smoking by pregnant women has already been linked to a higher risk of a woman having a miscarriage or her baby being born prematurely or having a low birth weight, 45% of women under 20 do so while one in seven is still a smoker when she gives birth.
The authors from University College London said their paper was "the first comprehensive review to identify the specific birth defects most associated with smoking cigarettes ."
They
Those who smoke while expecting a baby increase the risk of their child being born with a serious malformation by as much as 50%, the study found. The disclosure led to calls for new measures to reduce what the authors called "staggeringly high" levels of smoking among pregnant women.
Although smoking by pregnant women has already been linked to a higher risk of a woman having a miscarriage or her baby being born prematurely or having a low birth weight, 45% of women under 20 do so while one in seven is still a smoker when she gives birth.
The authors from University College London said their paper was "the first comprehensive review to identify the specific birth defects most associated with smoking cigarettes ."
They




