Smoking cessation, even during pregnancy, may reduce infant hospitalizations and death.
Stop Smoking Hypnotherapy

Maternal smoking may impair infant immunity, causing a broad range of infections

Smoking cessation, even during pregnancy, may reduce infant hospitalizations and death

In "Maternal Smoking During pregnancy and Infant Infectious Disease Morbidity and Mortality," published earlier this year in the journal Pediatric Infectious Diseases, researchers reviewed hospitalization records and death certificates of 50,000 infants born in the state of Washington between 1987 and 2004. The case-control study assessed infant hospitalizations and deaths due to respiratory and non-respiratory infectious disease.

The infants of mothers who smoked were 50 percent more likely to be admitted to a hospital or die from any of a wide variety of infectious diseases than babies of mothers who did not smoke.

"We've known for a long time that babies born to mothers who smoke during pregnancy are at high risk for serious medical problems relating to low birth weight, premature delivery and poor lung development," said lead study author Abigail Halperin, MD, MPH. "While respiratory infections have been recognized as a common cause of these sometimes life-threatening illnesses, this study shows that babies exposed to smoke in utero also have increased risk for hospitalization and death from a much broader range of infections—both respiratory and non-respiratory—than we knew before."

The findings were largely independent of birth weight and gestational age, "thus even full-term babies with normal weight are at increased risk for hospitalization or death from multiple types of infections if their mother smoked," said Dr. Halperin. The results suggest that exposure to smoke during pregnancy harms infants' immune responses more generally, not just within the respiratory system, she said.

The study also found that when mothers cut back on their cigarette smoking or quit part way through their pregnancy, it seems to lower their child's risk of infection, said Dr. Halperin. "Counseling pregnant women to reduce their smoking, if they are not able to quit completely, may help reduce infant hospitalizations or death," she said.

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition. 102013

When you quit smoking, you start to benefit immediately. 

Here are just a few examples of the improvements to your health ...

• Within 20 minutes of quitting smoking - your blood pressure and pulse rate drop to normal and the temperature of your hands and feet increases to normal.

• Within 8 hours of quitting to smoke - your carbon monoxide levels drop and your oxygen levels increase, both to normal levels.

• Within 24 hours of quitting - your risk of a sudden heart attack decreases.

• Within 48 hours of quitting - nerve endings begin to regenerate and your senses of smell and taste begin to return to normal.

• Within 2 weeks to 3 months of quitting - your circulation improves and walking becomes easier; even your lung function increases up to 30%.

• Within 1 to 9 months of quitting - your overall energy typically increases and symptoms like coughing, nasal congestion, fatigue, and shortness of breath diminish; also, the small hair-like projections lining your lower airways begin to function normally. This increases your lungs' ability to handle mucus, clean the airways, and reduce infections.

• Within 1 year of quitting - your risk of coronary heart disease is half that of someone still using tobacco.

• Within 5 years of quitting - the lung cancer death rate decreases by nearly 50% compared to one pack/day smokers; the risk of cancer of the mouth is half that of a tobacco user.

• Within 10 years of quitting - your lung cancer death rate becomes similar to that of someone who never smoked; pre-cancerous cells are replaced with normal cells; your risk of stroke is lowered, possibly to that of a nonuser; your risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney, and pancreas all go down.

National Institutes of Health

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