• Knowledgebase: The One Minute Pediatrician

    These are short topics that Dr. Dennis wrote for use on the radio. Each topic reads in less than one minute!

    6. Smoking and Pregnancy - Top

    Cigarette smoking has been linked with many health problems. During pregnancy there have been many associated findings that have been felt to be related to the fact that smoking cuses constriction or partial closure of the vessels of the placenta taking Oxygen and nutrition to the fetus.

    The major areas with significant increase in smoking mothers are

    1. Increase in spontaneous abortions in smokers
    2. Higher incidence of low birth weight babies because of poor nutrition in utero
    3. Increase in death rate of babies born to smoking mothers as compared to non-smokers

    The best choice is not to smoke during pregnancy. - Updated: January 18, 2002

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