Jump to full article: Reuters, 2010-07-27
Intro: A new study suggests that smokers who develop preeclampsia during pregnancy are at particular risk of suffering the complications associated with the disorder -- including preterm delivery, low birth weight and stillbirth.
The findings may not sound surprising. But they actually present something of a paradox, as past studies have linked smoking to a reduced risk of developing preeclampsia in the first place. . . .
But these latest findings, reported in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, suggest that once preeclampsia develops, smoking exacerbates the risk of complications, according to Elizabeth Miller and colleagues at the Ottawa Hospital in Canada.
Using a database with information on more than 300,000 births between 2004 and 2006, the researchers found that women who smoked during pregnancy had a slightly lower rate of preeclampsia -- 1.2 percent, versus 1.5 percent among non-smokers.
But among women with preeclampsia, smokers were more likely to have serious complications.
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