Jump to full article: North County (CA) Voice, 2009-06-28
Author: Philip J. Goscienski, M.D – The Stone Age Doc
Intro: A pregnant mother's lifestyle choices can lead to serious disease notonly in her infant's early childhood but in that child's middle age. That will ultimately have an effect on the national economy.
When a pregnant woman visits her obstetrician for the first time, she is likely to hear that smoking is a hazard to the child that she is carrying. Toxic chemicals that the mother inhales while smoking enter her bloodstream and cross the placenta to the baby.
Women who smoke during the first three months of pregnancy make it 60 percent more likely that their baby will be born with a heart defect. In the case of certain types of defects, it is 80 percent.
Some women who smoke will deliver a child too early or one who has not reached normal size.
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