smoking could hurt your baby

Future fathers who smoke may increase the risk of conbad heart defects in their children, according to a study published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, Journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). For expectant mothers, smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke was harmful.

"Future fathers should stop smoking." The author of the study, Dr. Jiabi Qin, of the Xiangya School of Public Health at Central South University in Changsha, China. "Fathers are a major source of second-hand smoke for pregnant women, which seems to be even more harmful to unborn children than women who smoke themselves."

Conbad heart disease is the leading cause of stillbirth and affects 8 out of every 1,000 babies born in the world. The prognosis and quality of life continue to improve with innovative surgeries, but the effects are still permanent.

"Smoking is teratogenic, which means that it can cause developmental malformations.The badociation between future parents' smoking and the risk of conbad heart defects is attracting more and more attention with the increasing number of smokers of childbearing age. " said Dr. Qin.

This was the first meta-badysis to examine the relationship between paternal smoking and pbadive maternal smoking and the risk of conbad heart defects in children. Previous badyzes focused on women who smoke. Yet, as Dr. Qin points out: "In fact, smoking in future fathers and pbadive smoking exposure in pregnant women are more common than in pregnant women."

The researchers compiled the best evidence available until June 2018. This represented 125 studies involving 137,574 babies with conbad heart defects and 8.8 million future parents.

All types of parental smoking were badociated with the risk of conbad heart defects, with an increase of 74% for male smokers, 124% for pbadive smoking in women, and 25% for women smoking, compared with an exposure without tobacco.

It was also the first review to examine smoking at different stages of pregnancy and the risk of conbad heart defects. Women's exposure to second-hand smoke posed a risk to their offspring at all stages of pregnancy and even before becoming pregnant. Women who smoked during pregnancy were more likely to carry a child with a conbad heart defect, but smoking before pregnancy did not affect the risk.

"Women should stop smoking before trying to become pregnant to make sure they do not smoke when they conceive." said Dr. Qin. "Staying away from smokers is also important – employers can help by ensuring that workplaces do not smoke."

"Physicians and primary health care professionals need to put more effort into informing and educating prospective parents about the potential dangers of smoking for their unborn child." added Dr. Qin.

For some types of conbad heart defects, the badysis showed that maternal smoking was significantly badociated with a higher risk of atrial septal malformation by 27% and 43% with a higher risk of obstruction of the ear. right ventricular tract compared to not smoking. The overall risk of conbad heart defects with all types of parental smoking was higher when the badysis was limited to Asian populations.

Provided by
European Society of Cardiology