A recent study shows that infants born to women who smoke during early pregnancy have a higher risk of certain congenital heart defects (CHD), according to "MedsSpace Today" news Wednesday.
The study results came from the Baltimore-Washington Infant Study, which was led by scientists with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States.
The Baltimore-Washington Infant Study was the first U.S. population-based case-control study of CHDs. It included data from 2,525 case infants and 3,435 control infants enrolled from 1981 to
1989, and records of in-person, postpartum interviews for the assessment of maternal cigarette smoking.
Scientists evaluated associations for 26 different groups of CHDs with cigarette smoking during early pregnancy, and found that early maternal cigarette consumption was positively associated with the risk
of six types of CHDs.
"Women who smoke and are thinking about becoming pregnant need to quit smoking and, if they're already pregnant, they need to stop," said
Thomas R. Frieden, director of the CDC.
Adolfo Correa, another researcher with the CDC, added that successfully stopping smoking during pregnancy could also lower the chances of pregnancy complications such as preterm delivery.
While the study boasted high-quality case ascertainment and defect classification, scientists noted that maternal smoking during
pregnancy should be implicated as a modest risk factor for birth defects due to the typically modest magnitude of the estimates.
Recently, UK researchers revealed their report that women who are exposed to second-hand smoke during their pregnancy are more at risk of having a stillbirth.