Apr 07 2009
Maternal Smoking increases the risk of SIDS
Smoking during pregnancy is harmful for the baby. It may lead to several serious consequences including abortion, premature birth, low birth weight and even death of the infant. Now, a new study published in the journal SLEEP suggests that maternal cigarette smoking also increase the risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), which is one of the leading causes of infant deaths in the US.
The study conducted by the Ritchie Centre for Baby Health Research at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, looked at 25 infants who were born on time and healthy. Out of those 25 infants, 12 were born to mothers who smoked on average 15 cigarettes per day. The arousal responses of those 12 infants were monitored during daytime sleep and compared the data with that of the other 13 infants born to nonsmoking mothers.
During the study arousals were induced by delivering a pulsatile air-jet for five seconds at the infants’ nostrils. Care was taken not to disturb the natural sleep cycles of those infants and then sub-cortical arousals and full cortical arousals were monitored with polysomnography.
The researchers found that cortical arousals were lowest in infants who were exposed to higher levels of cigarette smoke. On the other hand complications in arousal processes that reacts to life-threatening situations is regarded as one of the causes of SIDS. So, the researchers concluded that maternal smoking can impair the arousal pathways of normal infants and thus may increase the risk of SIDS. It means if you smoke, chances are more that your own habit will harm your infant baby. Think about it.
