According to a study in the latest Medical Journal of Australia, teenage moms who smoke during pregnancy their babies are more likely to suffer from low birth weight (LBW) than the moms who don’t smoke.

Associate Professor Elizabeth Sullivan and Denise Chan from the University of New South Wales analyzed the link between smoking in pregnant teenagers and baby birth weight. They discovered though smoking throughout pregnancy increased the risk of LBW, the babies of mothers who gave up smoking 20 weeks before gestation had birth weights almost same to babies born to non-smokers.

LBW is a basic indicator of a newborn’s overall health and also affects childhood development and predisposes children to chronic disease later in life. Decreasing the quantity of cigarettes smoked during pregnancy also affects the risk of LBW in infants. The authors state “Our results suggest that there is further scope to decrease smoking in pregnancy in teenage mothers,”.

“The quitting rate of only one in 15 among teenage mothers during pregnancy indicates how difficult smoking cessation remains for pregnant women.

“Harm minimization strategies require keep going to target smoking cessation in mothers, with health care providers like general practitioners, in an ideal position to effect maternal smoking rates.”The important clinical and public health message from our study is that quitting smoking before the second half of pregnancy has a right impact on birth weight.”

http://www.mja.com.au Australian Medical Association
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/102585.php

News published in CoolHealthTips.com are unique and property of the site only. Copying Contents or Publishing any News from CoolHealthTips.com is strictly not allowed and against Site’s policy