Smoking in pregnancy

doi:10.1136/bmj.b2188

Published 22 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2188
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2188

Editorials

Smoking in pregnancy

Severe adverse effects can be avoided if smoking is stoppedearly

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The harm to infants of in utero exposure to tobacco smoke frommaternal smoking is well established,¹ ² and a quarter of acentury has passed since it was first shown in a clinical trialthat stopping smoking during pregnancy could avoid the adverseeffects of smoking on birth weight.³ The findings from the linkedcohort study by McCowan and colleagues (doi:10.1136/bmj.b1081)provide new observational evidence suggesting that for healthywomen having their first baby, quitting smoking early in pregnancy(before 15 weeks’ gestation) can significantly reducerates of spontaneous preterm birth, small for gestational age,and complicated pregnancies compared to those of non-smokers.⁴Continuing to smoke was associated with an almost threefoldincrease in the rate of spontaneous preterm birth (4%, 4%, and10% for non-smokers, stopped smokers, and current smokers, respectively)and a nearly twofold increase in the rate of small for gestationalage infants (10%, 10%, . . . [Full text of this article]

Rona Campbell, professor of health services research¹, Deirdre J Murphy, professor of obstetrics²

¹ Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2PS, ² Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Trinity College Dublin and Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital, Dublin 8, Ireland

Rona Campbell rona.campbell@bris.ac.uk

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