Smoking pregnant women make the baby's brain smaller

- Women who smoke during pregnancy produce babies who are moody and more susceptible to depression than other children, the scientists said.

A study of more than 200 children found that babies whose mothers smoke regularly during pregnancy have a smaller brain and a greater risk of stress and anxiety.

Researchers suspect that tobacco may have affected growth by destroying nerve cells, and reducing oxygen to the fetus because tobacco causes narrowing of blood vessels.

The study, published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology , shows that smoking during pregnancy can have long-term effects on children's mental health.

In England and Wales, 17% of women smoke during pregnancy, of which, under the age of 20, this rate is 45%.

Smoking can cause significant effects on children who have not survived.

Exposure to intrauterine tobacco is thought to alter brain structure, but so far scientists know little about how the development of the affected organ, or whether the problem is Whether the observed behavior is controlled by these differences.

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Dr. Hanan B Marroun and colleagues evaluated the brain and sensibility of 113 children under 8 years of age, those whose mothers smoked from 1 to 9 cigarettes a day during pregnancy. .

17 of them stopped smoking when they discovered they were pregnant, while the remaining 96 continued smoking.

The results of the study were compared with a group of 113 other children who were not exposed to tobacco while in the mother's womb.

Scientists say that babies whose mothers continue to smoke, have smaller brains and less gray matter and white matter.

These children also exhibited many emotional problems - such as signs of depression and anxiety, and a smaller area of ​​the cortex on the forehead, the cortical region specifically related to temperament control.

Notably, the brain development of children whose mothers have stopped smoking during pregnancy did not have such expression.

Dr El Marroun, of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, said: 'Everyone knows that smoking can cause serious health problems including cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Smoking during pregnancy has been shown to have harmful effects on children's health. However, up to 25% of pregnant women still smoke during pregnancy. "

'Smoking during pregnancy has been linked to autoimmune malformations, decreased growth and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS - sudden infant death syndrome)'.

'During childhood and adolescence, pre-natal exposure (before birth) is associated with behavioral and cognitive problems. Moreover, signs of pre-natal tobacco exposure are associated with mental disorders and mortality from childhood to adolescence ".

Exposure to intrauterine tobacco is also thought to alter the structure of the brain. Therefore, it is important to better understand the changes in the brain due to exposure to tobacco that contribute to health risks in children.

'The results of our research both support and extend the previous diagnostic imaging studies in youth. For example , prenatal tobacco exposure is associated with cortical brain depletion in adolescents'.

He said tobacco can affect the development of intrauterine brain via nicotine - this has been demonstrated in animal studies - or disruption of the migration of brain cells.

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Another possible explanation is that mothers who smoke lead to a fetus that lacks oxygen and nutrients because the arteries become blocked and reduce the amount of blood transport that affects brain development.

Dr. Marroun said: ' Overall, the results of our research suggest that smoking causes long-term effects on brain development and emotional problems in young children.

'The results of the current study and the combination of existing theory on long-term effects of exposure to antenatal tobacco emphasize the importance of preventing and minimizing smoking in Pregnancy " The results of this study also support the need for public and clinical health strategies for preventing children's exposure to tobacco before being born.

Now researchers have estimated that hundreds of babies are born every year in England and Wales with disabilities caused by their mothers.

Every year in England and Wales, a total of about 3,700 children are born with the same situation.

The rate of babies born with missing limbs or deformed limbs was 26% higher - and the rate of cleft palate or cleft palate was 28% higher than those whose mothers did not smoke throughout the pregnancy. period

Similarly, the risk of crooked legs is greater than 28% and intestinal defects are 27% higher.

Cranial defects are about 33% likely to occur and eye defects are more common about 25%.

Of the 700,000 babies born every year in England and Wales, about 120,000 children are born from women who smoke.