Smoking During Pregnancy Cause Damage Children Blood Vessels

News Health Articles - Smoking During Pregnancy Cause Damage Children Blood Vessels. Some women still continue to smoke even during pregnancy. Most people really find it difficult to quit smoking. A new study suggests smoking during pregnancy can cause the child has a blood vessel damage.

The study was conducted by Dutch researchers, which has involved more than 250 babies. When the baby is 4 weeks old, dimensions and lung function measured. At the same time, their parents completed questionnaires on factors such as smoking during pregnancy.



When the babies are 5 weeks old, the researchers used ultrasound to measure carotid artery thickness and flexibility. Carotid arteries are large blood vessels in the neck that supply blood to the brain.

Carotid artery wall in children aged 5 years whose mothers smoked during pregnancy have a thickness of about 19 microns and 15 percent more rigid compared with mothers who did not smoke.

If both parents smoked while the baby is in utero, carotid artery children almost have a thickness of 28 microns and 21 percent more rigid than the infants whose parents did not smoke during pregnancy. Such changes may indicate damage to the blood vessels that can affect blood vessel function.

"The researchers found no negative impact if only the father of a baby who smoked during pregnancy, or if the mother does not start smoking until after delivery. The results of these studies further demonstrate the effects of smoking during pregnancy and exposure to cigarette smoke rather than later. From the results of the research could lead to thought that, smoking and pregnancy do not play an independent role, although exposure to smoking also has many adverse health, "said researcher Cuno Uiterwaal, MD, PhD, as reported by WebMD, Tuesday (27/12/2011).

Smoking during pregnancy is of course very bad for the mother and child. "The results of such research could strengthen the grounds that, women should stop smoking during pregnancy. Many women who quit smoking as soon as they know that being pregnant, but not all do it," said Uiterwaal.

An accompanying editorial notes of almost 1 in 5 adults in the United States who smoke, and more than half the children who showed biochemical evidence of exposure to cigarette smoke.

"There is no safe level of exposure to cigarettes is known," says pediatrician Susanne Tanski, MD, MPH, of Dartmouth College and Karen Wilson, MD, MPH, of the University of Rochester.

The results of these studies have strengthened the grounds that it is very important to stop smoking, especially among families with infants and toddlers, as well as couples who are planning to have children. The results of these studies have been published online in the journal Pediatrics.