ps418

There is a paper appearing today in Pediatrics looking at the effects of maternal smoking during pregnancy on newborn behavior. In essence, the research shows that newborns exposed to maternal smoking show perinatal behavior similar to those exposed to cocaine and heroin. In essence, it appears that the babies, once born, experience withdrawal-like symptoms. The study is based on comparison of 27 exposed and 29 nonexposed subjects, assessed using the NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS), a scale developed to assess behavior and neurological function in drug-exposed infants. Nicotine exposure was assessed both by self-reports and by salivary cotine levels.

Law et al, 2003. Smoking During Pregnancy and Newborn Neurobehavior. Pediatrics 111, pp. 1318-1323.

Patrick

CuriosityKills

While in my early teens I babysat a child who's mother had smoked through the pregnancy, and both parents smoked while in the home.

She was extremely irritable, and her behaviour indicated (to me), that she was suffering from withdrawl. The only time she calmed down was if she was being rocked. She wouldn't settle for a soft rocking though. You had to rock her in your arms almost violently.

Viti

Anecdotal evidence means nothing unfortunately Curiosity Kills. My mom smoked through both her pregnancies and neither of us had low birth weight, behavioral problems, learning disabilities or anything else often associated with smoking while pregnant (in fact, my brother was over 9 lbs). I have also seen kids with severe behavioral problems and disorders (OCD< ADD, etc) born to non-smokers.

I need to read the study, but the opening post didn't mention if these withdrawal type systems were temporary like any withdrawal or if they continued into childhood.

CuriosityKills

Wasn't trying to post 'evidence', just share experience.

I guess your 'anecdotal evidence' has more 'meaning'.

Lady Shea...

Viti

I'm sorry, I didn't mean it rudely or confontationally. The "unfortunately" was in reference to the fact that we don't have more information.

I just meant that for every anecdote that seems to support one side, there is an anecdote that supports just the opposite.

CuriosityKills

Fair enough. I do believe in having hard evidence before entirely subscribing to an idea.

However, it does seem to follow that plying a fetus with an addictive substance may result in withdrawl type symptoms.

Unless someone can prove that nicotene isn't addictive.

Viti

Sure, I agree. I still can't find in the article how long these withdrawal symptoms suppsoedly last.

tribalbeeyatch

It doesn't look like this study addressed your question. They don't even claim that this is necessarily a withdrawal effect, just that it seems a likely possibility.

ps418

Sure. All of those outcomes --LBW, behavior problems, learning disabilities, and so on-- have multifactorial etiologies. Its certainly possible for a smoking mother to have perfectly healthy children. That's why its important to go beyond anecdotes, and collect data in a systematic way.

Though still not rock-solid, there is reason to believe that maternal smoking does increase the risk of some of those outcomes. For instance, in a case-control study, maternal tobacco exposure was associated with child ADHD with an OR of 2.1 (95% CI 1.1-4.1), even after adjusting for several potential confounders such as familial ADHD (Biederman et al, 2002). Its still quite possible that there are uncontrolled confounders, and a prospective study would be stronger evidence, and the risk is probably small compared to that attributable to genetic background, but nonetheless I think that mothers should make every effort to quit smoking.

Patrick

Biederman et al, 2002. Case-control study of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and maternal smoking, alcohol use, and drug use during pregnancy. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 41, 378-385.