Pregnant women who smoke ONE cigarette a day ‘DOUBLE the risk of sudden infant death’
In the UK today, over 10 per cent of mums still smoke during their pregnancies
SMOKING just ONE cig a day before and during pregnancy doubles the risk of sudden unexpected infant death syndrome, experts are warning.
Scientists from the Seattle Children's Research Institute and Microsoft have been collecting data about how smoking contributes to babies dying suddenly and unexpectedly before their first birthday.
The study found that smoking any amount during pregnancy - even just one cig a day - doubles the risk.
And for those who smoke between one and 20 cigarettes a day, the odds of sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) increase by 0.07 with each extra cig smoked.
"With this information, doctors can better counsel pregnant women about their smoking habits, knowing that the number of cigarettes smoked daily during pregnancy significantly impacts the risk for SUID," said Dr Tatiana Anderson, a researcher in Seattle Children's Center for Integrative Brain Research and lead author on the study.
"Similar to public health campaigns that educated parents about the importance of infant sleep position, leading to a 50 per cent decrease in sudden infant death syndrome(SIDS) rates, we hope advising women about this risk will result in fewer babies dying from these tragic causes."
There are around 3,700 deaths from SUID every year in the USA, and Dr Anderson estimated that if no women smoked during their pregnancies, that would be lowered by around 22 per cent.
Between 1967 and 1980, the rates of married pregnant smokers went down significantly.
One found that the numbers went down from 45 per cent to 30 per cent of white mums, and from 40 per cent to 25 per cent of black mums.
, in 1985, 25.1 per cent of all women in the USA continued smoking after learning that they were pregnant.
Today, it's estimated that around one in 14, or 7.2 per cent of pregnant women in America. In the UK, that's more like 10.5 per cent of women.
In 2015,, and 17 per cent of those continued to do so throughout.
As for the rates of stillbirths, stateside, they've declined massively over the past thirty years.
The CDC Wonder and the National Centre of Health Statistics says that in 1980, there were 153 sudden deaths for every 100,000 live births. By 2010, that had dropped to just 51.6 per cent.
To study the effect smoking had on SUID risk, scientists analysed the smoking habits of mums for all USA live births between 2007 and 2011.
Of the 20 million live births included, over 19,000 deaths were caused by SUID.
As well as how many cigs smoked, scientists look at how smoking before pregnancy and cutting back or quitting during pregnancy affected the risk.
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Women who reduced their cig consumption by the third trimester saw a 12 per cent decrease in sudden death risk, while successful quitters saw their risk drop by 23 per cent.
"The most important takeaway is for women to understand that quitting smoking before and during pregnancy by far results in the greatest reduction in SUID risk," said Dr Anderson.
"For pregnant women unable to quit entirely, every cigarette they can eliminate will reduce the odds of their child dying suddenly and unexpectedly from SUID."
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