Smoking during pregnancy

[trailofmeat]

Hi All,

I am curious if there is a name to describe the effects of smoking during pregnancy has on the fetus? For example, there is a fetal alcohol syndrome, which describes the effects of alcohol on the fetus, yet, in the articles I've read they just refer to smoking during pregnancy as just that.

Kind Regards
Trail

[MichaelXY]

Asthma, bronchitis... Maybe?
I suspect there is no way to directly link maternal smoking to a particular illness like AFS. AFS has a direct relation to mothers who consume alcohol. Asthma on the other hand can be caused by many factors even in a mother who does not smoke.

[JorgeLobo]

Please keep ,this an accurate discussion. Smoking and alcohol consumption per se have no signficant detrimental effect on the fetus. Excessive alcohol consumption does and smoking's effect is arguable tho' the health nazi's would eliminate choice and ban both.

[trailofmeat]

Thanks for your responses. I need to appologize, as I found the term I needed in an article that I had previously read prior to posting this thread. It refers to this condition as prenatal cigarette smoke exposure (PCSE).

It appears that dose dependant cigarette smoke does have an effect on the birth weight and cephalic size, which can alter the shape and growth of the brain and central nervous system. Therefore one could say that cigarette smoke does affect the fetus.

[JorgeLobo]

lol - love the pompous acronyms. This so-called condition is not broken out from other factors smoking mothers may have indulged.

The health lobby is at it again - science doesn't have to rigorous when you're already convinced. Think trailofmeat was sucking us in.

[khelben1979]

Maybe this article: http://health.discovery.com/centers/pregnancy/americanbaby/smoking.html might spice up the debate in this thread.

Personally, I definitely think it seems like a very bad idea.

[bradleypeter]

Hi All,

I am curious if there is a name to describe the effects of smoking during pregnancy has on the fetus? For example, there is a fetal alcohol syndrome, which describes the effects of alcohol on the fetus, yet, in the articles I've read they just refer to smoking during pregnancy as just that.

Kind Regards
Trail

Woman who smoke during pregnancy face lot consequences such as sudden infant death syndrome, still birth, low birth weight of the baby, placenta abruption, premature birth, miscarriage, infertility, colic and respiratory infection that affects new born babies. Visit: http://smokingharms.com/, it provides much information about the above issue.

[Darby]

If you're looking for a simple effect (so let's ignore the microtoxins released into the blood), just the ongoing presence of carbon monoxide will reduce oxygen availability to the embryo and fetus. I agree that the anti-smoking forces grossly overestimate the effects (which garners the response to believe NOTHING about bad effects), but the effects are well-supported by a large number of well-run studies (and, again, there are some pretty lousy studies out there as well).