Maternal Smoking Risks Baby’s Health

 

Women who smoked during their pregnancy have 60% risk of getting a child with ADHD as compared to women who don’t smoke. The risk was at 54% for the women who smoked less than 10 cigarettes per day. For those who are heavy smokers that are closed at 75% higher than those who don’t smoke.

The similar results of the increased risk of children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy getting ADHD have been reported before. The difference with current data is that it has been acquired from multiple countries and at various times. The results now show that the daily use study of cigarette has risen which in return has increased the ADHD discovery in kids.

According to Dr. Andrew Adesman, the chief of behaviors and developmental pediatrics at Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Centre in New York, the current finding created more strength and credibility as well as the statistical power compared to the previous studies. These findings stressed that pregnant women who smoke during pregnancy are at greater risk of getting children with ADHD.

Dr. Andrew said that the study was taken seriously and suggested that women who smoke during pregnancy have a reason to stop.

Findings from the Study

Approximately 10% of women in America reported having smoked during their third-semester pregnancy. This is according to pregnancy risk assessment and monitoring system data of 2011 gathered from 24 states in the United States.

11% of those children who are aged between 4 to 17 years have been screened with AHD and this was linked to their parent’s report. This is according to Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

ADHD is said to cause hyper reactivity and also difficulties in schools both socially and psychologically. It also effects self-control in a great way.

Dr. Dezhi Mu and colleagues from West China Secondary University Hospital analyzed about 20 studies that were published between the year 1988 and 2017.The study demonstrated the role of smoking during pregnancy and the risk of ADHD in infants. The study involved around 3 million people from Europe, Brazil, Australia, USA and Japan.

They found out that there were less cases of ADHD in children whose mother in the US and Europe stopped smoking when they got pregnant. Dr. Jeffrey Newcorn from the Centre of Excellence in ADHD and Related Disorder told Reuters that it is a good step if a smoker stopped smoking during pregnancy because this will lower the risks of ADHD.

Research Conclusion and Recommendations

Information from the seven studies conducted revealed that women’s smoking has greater effect compared to that of men. There is 20% risk of ADHD in children born to fathers who smoke.

Some of the limitations of this research are that it cannot fully prove that smoking causes ADHD. However, different areas were used in various studies and pregnant women reported using tobacco by themselves.

Extensive research is necessary to find more relationship between environmental and genetic factors in developing ADHD as well as nicotine exposure.