Smoking Harmful to Babies Blood Vessels

By Ina Woolcott

Here is some evidence that smoking is not complementary to babies health. Not that we really need evidence, but for some reason people seem to need proof. This kind of thing gets to me as its common sense that smoking is not going to be good for a baby in and outside of the womb. Just today I have seen several women smoking in the car with their children. One woman had a newborn next to her. Another had kids in the front and back of the car, window shut and was puffing away. I find it sad and unfair on the children who have to put up with this.

Women who smoke during pregnancy may cause irreversible damage to their child's blood vessels, increasing their risk of heart disease. Women who are exposed to tobacco smoke, or worse yet are smokers, are contributing factors to low birth weight, which is linked to a higher rate of cardiovascular disease.

In the USA researchers looked at the medical files of 732 people born between 1970 and 1973, who had their vascular health checked between 1999 to 2000.

Their findings demonstrated that the adult children of the 215 mothers who smoked during pregnancy had much thicker walls of the two major arteries on the neck, the carotid arteries, than adult children of the mothers who did not smoke whilst pregnant.

Please read related link: Second-hand Smoke and Children