Named the new danger of smoking during pregnancy

American scientists substantiated why smoking and pregnancy cannot be combined. Seattle researchers have done a lot of analytical work and concluded that even one cigarette a day smoked by a future mom increases the risk of sudden infant death.

The research results are published in the official scientific publication Pediatrics.

Tobacco smoke, according to the study, affects fetal DNA, changes its individual links, dozens of times increases the propensity to develop autism, to obesity in a child and the development of asthma.

But not only active smoking is dangerous, but even the presence of traces of tobacco smoke on clothing and interior items. Contact with such traces (this is called secondary and tertiary smoking) increases the likelihood of a child developing deafness, strabismus.

At the Institute of Pediatrics in Seattle, where the study was conducted, more than 20 million medical records of women in labor were analyzed, as well as more than 19 thousand cases of sudden infant death over a rather long period - from 2007 to 2011.

It turned out that smoking a pregnant woman with just one cigarette per day increases the risk of a sudden stop of breathing in a newborn and his death 2 times, but if a pregnant woman smokes a pack a day, the chances of a sudden death of a child after birth increase by 295%.

The researchers, led by Professor Anderson, called on the authorities of all countries to develop programs that will help stimulate smoking cessation for pregnant women. Only this measure, according to experts, will help reduce early child mortality by 22%, and the number of disabled children by 15%.