For any woman who is pregnant right now (or even one thinking of getting pregnant one day) and who is still smoking, here’s a very encouraging piece of news.
A study that looked at 50,000 pregnancies concluded that if a woman gave up smoking soon after she conceived, she had the same chance of a giving birth to a normal-weight baby as a woman who has never smoked.
And the reason that matters is that low birth-weight is a major marker for lots of other health problems. Not to mention that smoking is also related to other key problems during the pregnancy and during labour, as well as in the post-partum period. And, that smoking by a parent, either the mom or the dad, and worst of all by both, is linked to some pretty negative health measures in children forced to live in a smoky environment.
Anyway, the bottom line from this study is pretty simple and should hit home hard to any woman still smoking after conception: quit smoking early in your pregnancy, and there is no harm to the baby.
