Secondhand Smoke Proves Dangerous to Pregnancies

It is common among pregnant women to quit smoking for the sake of their child, but that may not be enough. According to a new study, the expectant mother and even father may want to avoid smoke and smoking environments as they are considering having a child.

Women exposed to secondhand smoke throughout their reproductive lives have a significantly increased risk of negative pregnancy outcomes, according to a study published in Tobacco Control, a publication of the British Medical Journal Group.

According to the study, these adverse outcomes include miscarriage, stillbirth, and even ectopic pregnancy -- a life threatening pregnancy condition that occurs when a developing embryo stays in the fallopian tube or attaches to another organ in the abdomen. The risk of these adverse pregnancy results added by secondhand smoke ranged from 17 percent all the way to 61 percent depending on the result and environmental conditions.

According to the study's research team, the adverse effects direct smoking can have on a developing child have been documented at length over the years. However, the study's authors claim that documented data concerning the adverse effects of secondhand smoke on a pregnancy has been largely inconsistent.

To resolve this issue, the research team analyzed reproductive data documented by the Woman Health Initiative on more than 80,000 women who had one or more pregnancies. This group was then divided into groups that comprised of approximately 5,000 current smokers, 35,000 former smokers, and 40,000 women who never smoked.

This data was then compared to observed and reported regular smoking environments among the mothers both before and during pregnancy. Alarmingly, the researchers found that women who never smoked but were regularly exposed to high second-hand smoke environments throughout their lives had a risk of pregnancy complications that was equal to, if not sometimes greater than, the risk of pregnancy complications in women who were active smokers during the whole of their reproductive years.

Interestingly, the researchers also found that exposure to secondhand smoke for non-smokers during exclusively their childhood years had no impact on the risk of adverse pregnancy results.

What does this mean? The study provides conclusive evidence that a secondhand smoke environment is just as harmful to prospective mothers as regularly smoking. Exposure to smoke during a woman's reproductive years -- classified in the study as past the age of 18 and before 35 -- either directly or by secondhand, raises the risk of pregnancy complications by significant amounts.

The study was published in Tobacco Control on February 26.

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