Mothers-to-be who continue to smoke during pregnancy are severely
increasing the chance of their baby being born with facial deformities,
new research has revealed.
A report from the Office of the General Surgeon in the US suggests
smoking during pregnancy gives women a one in two chance of having a
baby with a failure of the upper lip or the palate that did not properly
develop during the foetus’ development.
Latest statistics from Health & Social Care Information Centre
reveal more than one in ten (12.7 per cent) pregnant women are smokers
at delivery. Given there were 694,241 births in England in the last
year, more than 54,500 babies could be at risk from a facial deformity.
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Smoking during pregnancy has previously been linked to a number of
health conditions, including heart defects, weight and size issues as
well as lung conditions while tobacco use is also the leading cause of
mouth cancer. Chief Executive of the British Dental Health Foundation,
Dr Nigel Carter OBE, believes the research only adds to the calls for
people to quit smoking.
Dr Carter said: “There is a wealth of evidence to suggest smoking during
pregnancy achieves nothing but putting your baby in harm’s way. When
you consider there are thousands of hazardous chemicals in a single
cigarette, regularly smoking poses all sorts of risks.
“Any amount of cigarette smoking during pregnancy significantly
increases the risk of having a child with health problems. Cigarettes
aren’t an easy thing to give up. Research has shown this. However, if
cigarettes expose unborn babies to harmful chemicals caused by smoking,
it is something pregnant women must ditch immediately.
“Smoking cessation services needed to be targeted at women from poorer
backgrounds who are more likely to smoke. Young boys as well as girls
also need to be told about the risks of smoking, particularly during
pregnancy, considering the UK still has a very high teenage pregnancy
rate.
“If we are educating people on the risks posed by smoking, this could
help to reduce the growing number of mouth cancer cases too. Tobacco use
is the leading cause of the disease, and education remains the key.
Latest figures show that it claims more lives than road traffic
accidents do, so pregnant women are not only placing their baby’s health
at risk – they are endangering their own.”
