Shocking rise of pregnant teens deliberately smoking to have SMALLER babies
Some young women light up after finding out they are having a girl to make her 'small and cute'
PREGNANT teenagers are smoking cigarettes in the hope it will reduce the size of their unborn baby and minimise labour pains.
A recent study revealed girls as young as 16 are taking the extreme measures to try and control their labour despite the potentially fatal effect it could have on their child, according to .
recently reported the findings of a 10-year national study, and it turns out pregnancy smoking has been a longstanding issue among teenagers in Britain and abroad.
Associate professor Simone Dennis, from the Australian National University, said: “Shockingly, expectant teens are more fearful of labour and having a large child rather than the health complications caused by cigarettes including higher stillbirth rates and increased risk of childhood asthma and allergies."
“They had read on packets that smoking can reduce the birth weight of your baby, which is obviously not how the public health message is intended to be taken.
“They were scared because they were small. The worst thing that could happen to them was to have an enormous baby.
“Some were young, 16 or 17 years, and their overriding fear was ‘Oh my God, I’m going to have an enormous child’, so they were actively using cigarettes to medicate against that.
“Some had even taken it up for the first time for that very reason, and some smoked harder, hoping the promise on the packet would come true. If you smoked more, you could make it better. I was really struck by that.”
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Bizarrely it’s not just the actual birth giving these mums a reason to control the weight of their babies.
Some young women, after learning they are having a girl, want to make sure she is little because they believe that small girls are cute.
With so much already on their young minds, this “quick fix” may sound appealing, enough, even, to override the obvious detrimental side effects of this killer habit.
Tobacco causes long-term damage to the lungs, brain and blood of an unborn child and can cause pregnancy emergencies in the mother, by reducing the amount of essential oxygen and nutrients an unborn baby needs for healthy physical and mental development.
The effects of maternal smoking also include an increased risk of miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth.
In addition, smoking while you are pregnant also increases the risk of cot death by at least 25 per cent.
Another thing the young expectant mums aren't considering is the further impact that a low birth weight would have on their children as time moves forward.
For example, a recent study found the more heavily a mum smoked during her pregnancy, the greater the risk of her child being overweight right into adulthood.