Why Pregnant Mother Should Not Smoke?

Tobacco smoking is bad for the health. It would lead to many chronic diseases including lung cancer, hypertension (high blood pressure), heart disease, stroke, erectile dysfunction and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).

The harm often extends not only to the smokers themselves but also to others, especially the family members and friends. Studies have shown that people might develop similar diseases through secondhand smoke.

Smoking is no longer the privilege for men. Many women have picked up this habit as well.

Around 15 percent of women smoke while pregnant in many Western countries. What these female smokers do not know is that a wide range of childhood health problems, including behavioral and neurocognitive problems and sudden infant death had been linked to smoking during and after pregnancy.

A recent study by researchers from the University of Sydney found that pregnant mothers who smoke could cause changes to their unborn babies that can lead them to have lower high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. HDL is commonly referred to as ‘good cholesterol’ that plays a key role in protecting against atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis is a condition in which the artery wall thickens because of accumulation of fatty materials. It could cause heart problems and even heart attack.

Published on June 21, 2011 in the European Heart Journal, the Australian researchers reported that by the age of 8, children born to mothers who smoked in pregnancy had level of HDL cholesterol at around 1.3 millimoles per liter (mmol/L), which was lower than those born to mothers who had not smoked, with about 1.5 mmol/L.

The participants were 405 healthy 8-years-old children (born between 1997 and 1999) who had been enrolled before birth into a randomized controlled trial that was investigating asthma and allergic disease. Data were collected before and after they were born, including information on mothers' smoking habits before and after pregnancy, exposure to passive smoke, and data on height, weight, waist measurement and blood pressure.

Ultrasound scans were used to measure the arterial wall thickness and blood samples were taken from 328 children, who agreed, to measure lipoprotein levels. There was no effect on the thickness of the children's arterial walls, but it was found that there was an effect on levels of HDL cholesterol.

The findings suggested that smoking created an unhealthy set of characteristics on babies while they are developing in the womb, which might cause them prone to develop heart disease and stroke later on. The effect seemed to last for at least 8 years and the risk of getting heart disease for smokers’ children could be 10 to 15 percent higher.

Smoking Mothers Could Produce Fat Children!

Smoking women not only raise the risk of heart disease and cardiovascular disease of their babies but also are at nearly 3 times greater risk of producing obese children.

This is result, of a study conducted by Yamanashi University's School of Medicine, revealed at the recent meeting of public health experts in Japan in the middle of October 2007. The survey was done over a period of almost 2 decades to cover some 1,400 women in Japan who gave birth between April 1991 and March 1997. The researchers then collected the data on about 1,000 of their children when their ages reached 9 or 10.

The study showed that the risk of obesity was 2.9 times higher among children whose mothers smoked when they were 3 months pregnant or in earlier stages of pregnancy, as compared with children of non-smoking mothers. This indicates that mothers who smoke during pregnancy, even in early stages can still affect the health of children over a longer period of time.

Nevertheless, the researchers could not find out the exact correlation. They "speculate" that children whose mothers smoked were in shortage of nutrition in the womb. The poorly fed babies in the womb would naturally stock up nutrition after they were born.

While the truth is yet to be found, what matters most for the mothers-to-be is to stop smoking for the sake of their children.

Less Abnormal-Heart-Rhythms Babies Born To Exercising Women!

It is generally agreed by sports medicine experts that exercise is beneficial for pregnant women, or poses little or no harm to developing fetus. The researchers suggest that pregnant women can and should have regular physical activity. However, they should follow recommended exercise based on their individual pregnancy activity level, general health and fitness goals.

Exercise does not appear to be related to a higher risk of preterm delivery. Exercised pregnant women have less low back pain and other musculoskeletal complaints compared to their sedentary peers. They also tend to have less signs of depression, better self-image, and they will return quickly to their pre-pregnancy weights.

Most studies show that exercise does not rise or reduce the weight of infants. In fact, babies born to women who exercise appear to be more alert and may be less likely to have abnormal heart rhythms.

Nevertheless, not all pregnant women should exercise. To avoid injury, women who do not exercise regularly before pregnancy are advised to start exercising for 15 minutes 3 days a week, and gradually increase intensity and time to 30 minutes and 4 days a week.

If pregnant women experience vaginal bleeding, headache, severe shortness of breath, chest pain, leakage of amniotic fluid, or if they detect a reduction in fetal movements, then they must immediately stop exercising and consult the doctor.

More Kids Means Higher Risk Of Heart Disease?

Do you know that the more children you have, the more likely that you are to be obese, regardless of whether you are a mother or a father?

The researchers had found that the relationship between the number of children in a family and the risk of heart disease in both mothers and fathers forms a "J" shaped curve. The risks of heart disease appears lowest in parents with 2 children, then rises as the number of children increases or decreases.

Furthermore, for families with 2 children, the addition of every new child increases the risk of heart disease among mothers by 30 percent, and among fathers by 12 percent. The increased risk of heart disease among women could be a result of numerous pregnancies. Interestingly, once obesity and other factors for heart disease are removed from this relationship, the risk of heart disease remained only slightly higher among mothers with many children, and disappeared completely in fathers.

What Is Miscarriage Related With Heart Disease?

Women who have lost one or more pregnancies are 50 percent more likely than women who have never miscarried to be hospitalized for heart disease or suffer a heart attack, according to a British research.

The study further reported that women who had lost more than 3 pregnancies were twice as likely to develop heart disease than women who had experienced no miscarriages.

The researchers explained that pregnancy represents a major challenge of adaptation for the mother's heart and blood vessels. The complications during pregnancy may be the first signs of an underlying tendency towards cardiovascular disease, which may ultimately manifest in symptomatic heart disease.

Nevertheless, the researchers could not be sure that their finding was not simply a chance association because of the small number of women in the study who fit the research criteria.

Is Coffee A Healthy Drink?

Most people will regard coffee as a bad beverage because of the caffeine it contains. As a matter of fact, British Dietetic Association has advised people not to drink too much coffee because this can make us feel jittery or unable to fall asleep. Pregnant women should take no more than 2 cups per day.

On the other hand, recent studies have suggested otherwise: a moderate consumption of coffee may in fact good for us. A Harvard School of Public Health study had found that men who drank more than 6 cups of coffee a day could reduce their risk for Type 2 diabetes by 50 percent and women by nearly 30 percent. As we all know, diabetes is a risk factor for heart disease. If its risk can be reduced, then the possibility of developing heart disease might be much lower too.