This was in my Pampers newsletter and thought that it was interesting....
Quote:
Quote:| The Dangers of Prenatal Smoking The News: A new study shows that babies born to mothers who smoke may develop symptoms similar to those of babies of drug-addicted mothers. The scientific community has known for a long time that infants born to smoking mothers are at risk for low birth weight. Now, researchers at Brown University have uncovered another risk. They compared 27 newborns whose mothers smoked during pregnancy with 29 infants of non-smoking mothers at 48 hours after birth. Prenatal smoking exposes a baby to nicotine, the poisonous, addictive substance found in tobacco. The babies were all full term, of similar birth weight, and basically healthy. The nicotine-exposed infants were excitable, tense, and showed more signs of stress. Babies with these problems have difficulty eating and sleeping, and they overreact to stimuli, which makes it difficult for them to be comforted. (Pediatrics, vol. 111, no. 6 [June 2003]: pp. 1318-1323) Comment, by Loraine Stern, M.D.: In spite of all we know about the harmful effects of smoking, as many as 400,000 pregnant women in the United States continue to smoke. Tobacco addiction is one of the most difficult addictions to break. If you or someone you know needs help quitting smoking during pregnancy, go to www.americanlegacy.org/greatstart. |
Poor babies...
but with this one its been really hard! 
