MORE pregnant women are smoking in Hartlepool than the national average. And the trend comes at a time when women smokers were revealed to be more likely to have a heart attack than men. The town also suffers from a higher than average death rate linked to smoking, figures have shown. Figures show the town’s rate of pregnant smokers is 22.6 per cent of women compared to 21.1 per cent in the North-East, and 13.5 per cent nationally.

Deaths attributed to smoking stand at 316.1 per 100,000 people in Hartlepool, compared to 282.5 per 100,000 regionally, and 216.0 nationally.

Town death rates from heart disease which are linked to smoking stand at 37.7 per 100,000 people compared to 39.8 regionally, and 32.1 nationally.

The statistics come at a time when a national study showed women who smoke had a much higher risk of a heart attack than men.

Today, campaigners at the anti-smoking group FRESH, began their own calls for tougher action to crack down on the glamour of smoking.

Ailsa Rutter, director of FRESH, said: “The study of 2.4 million people published in The Lancet shows that women who smoke have a much higher risk of heart attack then men.

“While in the North-East we’ve seen the most rapid drop in number of smokers overall, this is still a big issue for us as we have a higher prevalence of female smokers in the region.”

She said the North-East levels of smoking rates among women stood at 23 per cent of women over 16, or 248,000 women.

“We are particularly seeing smoking becoming more and more prevalent among younger women.”

She said the industry was using certain types of cigarettes to “exploit and encourage an obsession with fashion and staying slim – and in the North-East 14 per cent of younger girls are admitting they smoke regularly.

“FRESH would like to see the issue of plain packaging taken seriously in a bid to tackle this issue as glamorous packaging does help to recruit new customers – if it didn’t, the tobacco industry would not spend millions of pounds in developing these new products.”

Toxic chemicals in tobacco smoke may have a more potent effect on women due to biological differences, scientists believe.

They analysed data on four million people and found that the increased risk of heart disease linked to smoking was 25 per cent higher for women

Women who smoke while pregnant increase their child’s risk of heart attack or stroke by up to 20 percent, a new study has found. University of Sydney researchers said today (Wednesday, June 22) they had discovered eight-year-old children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy had lower levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), known to arm the body against heart disease. The study found the children born to mothers who smoked while they were pregnant had HDL cholesterol levels of about 1.3 millimoles per litre (mmol/L), compared to the more normal level of 1.5 mmol/L in children whose mothers had not smoked.

Lead author, David Celermajer, Scandrett Professor of Cardiology at the University of Sydney said that equated to a 20 percent drop in the protective cholesterol.

“It also increases their risk of having a heart attack or stroke by 15 to 20 per cent,” he said.

Professor Celermajer said the effect came after the researchers took into account other risk factors, such as whether children were exposed to cigarette smoke after birth, lack of exercise and weight.
This suggested prenatal exposure had the most impact on a child’s development and left and “imprint in the womb” that had an effect later in life of increasing the risk of heart attack or stroke.

Dr Julian Ayer, a principal study researcher, of Sydney Medical School said previous research had shown links between smoking and high cholesterol levels. However, until now it had been unclear what effect exposure in the womb to cigarette smoke had on the risk of future cardiovascular disease.

“Studies show it does seem to follow that pattern through the life course,” he said.

Professor Celermajer said the research had shown the imprinting lasted until age eight and the study would continue at least until the children turned 12, to see what the impacts were when the children hit puberty.

Dr Ayer said smoking during pregnancy was “still, unfortunately quite high”, with about 15 per cent of Western pregnant women keeping up the habit.

The study, published in the European Society of Cardiology’s European Heart Journal online today, involved 405 Sydney children born in 1997 and 1999 and began when they were still in the womb.

Data was collected before and after birth, including information on mothers’ smoking habits before and after pregnancy, children’s exposure to passive smoking, and height, weight, waist circumference and blood pressure measurements.

Ultrasound scans were used to measure arterial wall thickness and they took blood from 328 children to measure lipoprotein levels.

The HDL findings came this year when they took blood samples from 328 of those children.

Although smoking had no effect on the thickness of the children’s arterial wall, the difference on HDL cholesterol levels attributable to mothers’ smoking was about 0.15 mmol/L

Dr Ayer said although the number of children used in the study was significant, and although the subjects were from Sydney the results could be applied to any children in the West.

Professor Celermajer added: “Children born to mothers who have smoked during pregnancy will need
to be watched particularly carefully for other coronary risk factors such as high blood pressure, ‘bad’ cholesterol (LDL) levels, and especially cigarette smoking themselves.”

Smoking while pregnant is on the decline in Colorado, but still remains one of the leading preventable causes of low birth weight in newborns, a study by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) said Wednesday. One in 14 low-weight births between 2007-2009 were due to smoking, a decrease from almost one in eight low-weight births a decade earlier.

The CDPHE said that while smoking during pregnancy was decreasing, there was no improvement on the amount of women gaining enough weight during pregnancy, another leading factor in low birth weight. Jillian Jacobellis, the Prevention Services Division director at the CDPHE, said that smoking during pregnancy or not gaining enough weight both cause a significant risk of a newborn weighing less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces at delivery.

“These low birth-weight babies are at risk for disabilities, complications requiring longer hospital stays and treatment in intensive care units, and even death. Public health interventions that address these issues are necessary to reduce these numbers,” said Jacobellis.

Women of a normal weight for their height are advised to gain between 25 and 35 pounds; underweight women, 28 to 40 pounds; overweight women, 15 to 25 pounds and obese women, 11 to 20 pounds.

To calculate what your ideal weight gain during pregnancy would be, click here

After finding in the late 90s that almost 12 percent of Colorado women smoked during pregnancy, the CDPHE started a public health campaign to encourage women to quit smoking. In the latest study, the CDPHE said that the number of women smoking during pregnancy decreased to 8.7 percent. Jacobellis credits the public health campaigns, as well as tax increases to tobacco products and the Clean Indoor Act—which apply to all smokers—in helping the numbers to drop.

MUMS-TO-BE are risking the lives of their unborn babies by smoking, binge drinking and even taking drugs, Wales on Sunday can reveal today. Alarming new figures show more women smoke during their pregnancy in Wales than anywhere else in the UK. And, shockingly, some young mums-to-be continue smoking in a bid to ensure they have a smaller baby and an easier birth.

Wales’ chief medical officer Dr Tony Jewell today spoke of his worry about the potential impact on the health of babies born to these women.

And Helen Rogers, director of the Royal College of Midwives in Wales, said: “Although we know adult women have stopped smoking there are still high levels among younger women in the general population and these are the ones who are also getting pregnant.

“Part of the image of smoking is that you don’t put on weight and there’s an idea that if you smoke when pregnant you stay quite slim, you’ll also have a smaller baby which is easier to give birth to.

“Underlying all this is that young women think it’s cool to smoke and they don’t see being pregnant as a reason to give up.

“There’s also a big problem with binge drinking among teenagers and young people and that continues through pregnancy.

“This is a real issue and Wales has got a public health problem here.”

Figures show a staggering 37% of pregnant women smoke in Wales.

It is estimated that around half of all mums- to-be drink alcohol but around one in 12 drinks more than two units a week – the equivalent of two shots of spirit, or less than a pint of lager or two 272ml bottles of the alcopop Barcardi Breezer.

Despite these levels of drinking, it is understood there are relatively few cases of foetal alcohol syndrome – a cluster of mental and physical defects in a baby caused by drinking alcohol during pregnancy.

The current advice on alcohol during pregnancy is conflicting. Pregnant women are advised to avoid drinking alcohol but they are also told not to drink more than two units once or twice a week.

And Wales on Sunday has learned some experts have put the number of young pregnant women using illegal drugs at one in 20.

Dr Jewell said: “We want babies to be born with their optimum capability for the future.

“Nicotine causes blood vessels to constrict, reducing blood supply to the placenta so the baby gets less oxygen and nutrients.

“Alcohol affects different parts of the nervous system. People slur when they have been drinking and can’t walk in a straight line because different parts of the brain are affected.

“In the early stages of pregnancy a baby’s nervous system is really developing from scratch – the brain will continue to develop until the age of 20.

“That’s why pregnancy is so important to optimise development and health, not diminish it.”

Tanya Buchanan, chief executive of anti-smoking charity Ash Wales, said: “Educating both young and older mums about the dangers of smoking during pregnancy is extremely important both for the mother’s health and also their baby’s.

“Smoking during pregnancy is associated with a range of adverse health impacts on an unborn child including premature births, low birth weight, miscarriage and cot death.

“I have no doubt that the majority of pregnant women want to give their child the best start in life but nicotine is very addictive which means that quitting is not easy for many smokers. That’s why providing pregnant women who smoke with specific cessation programmes is essential to support them at such an important time.”

The Assembly Government’s new anti-child poverty and maternity strategies will contain measures to improve the health of pregnant women.

And health boards are referring pregnant women to stop smoking services.

Dr Jewell added: “We need to be talking to midwives, to GPs and to obstetricians to up the advice given to women about the risks of drinking and smoking in pregnancy.”

But Ms Rogers warned: “The NHS doesn’t have a great track record on prevention – it deals with illness and sickness. We treat the problem.

“A great number of women are being referred to smoking cessation services but with ever-tightening budgets, these are often the types of services that get hit.

“It’s not just about stopping a woman smoking – if we can get to her we may also be able to stop the partner smoking and that in turn may stop her children smoking.

“It can have such a knock-on effect and, relatively speaking, it doesn’t cost as much as treating a smoking-related illness.”

An emerging study looked at the link between prenatal smoking and behavioral problems in children. Most discussed was attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) later in childhood. The possible cause for this was explained by recent research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The Research explained that nicotine exposure in utero causes a decline in adult stem cells and an alteration in the ability of the hippocampuses’ synaptic plasticity. This was evident in the UAB team’s test on rats. The test showed that the rats that were exposed to nicotine during pregnancy presented a significant decrease in the number of new cells in the hippocampus. The hippocampus part of the brain plays a significant role in learning and memory and the adult stem cells in this area maintain the production of new cells in a lifetime, that is, if without the nicotine exposure.

Despite the many established ill-effects of maternal smoking to a newborn’s general health, the World Health Organization reports that there are still a significant number of pregnant women who smoke. Experts believe as many as 20 percent of pregnant women are believed to be smokers.

The findings of the study conducted by Lester, pointed that nicotine exposure in utero is a substantial cause for brain cell alterations accounting for behavioral problems in children, including learning disabilities.

Shay Hyman, a doctoral student in Lester’s laboratory said that although it has also been established that other addictive drugs such as cocaine and morphine contribute to similar effects in newborn brain cells, nicotine showed a more drastic effect in newborns and may suggest a considerable increase in susceptibility for damage to the newborn’s learning faculties during pregnancy.

PLANS to stop pregnant women smoking and encourage them to lead healthier lives will be unveiled today. Wales has the highest rates of women who smoke while they are pregnant and of maternal obesity. The plans to improve the lifestyles of mothers-to-be is part of a wider strategy to improve maternity services in Wales. The draft strategy, which will be subject to a three-month consultation, states that maternity services in Wales will “aim to be among the best in the world”.

Women will have access to a range of high-quality choices of care, from midwife to consultant-led services, in a range of settings that include home, hospital or a midwife-led birth centre.

And the strategy states the service will employ a “highly- trained” workforce.

Health Minister Edwina Hart said: “Maternity services have improved significantly in recent years with more investment in new equipment, facilities and staff. The new strategy aims to build on the achievements so far, and ensure consistency in services across Wales.

“With nearly 35,000 children born in Wales each year, and a year-on-year increase in the birth rate over the last five years, this draft strategy outlines how every child in Wales has a secure start in life, and that the mother, her partner and family begin parenting feeling confident and well supported.

“The health of children is influenced by what happens throughout pregnancy and even before, so it is vitally important that efforts to ensure that the mother and child are safe and healthy need to start well before the birth.”

Dr Jean White, Wales’ chief nursing officer, said: “The months before and the years immediately after birth are crucial to the life chances of the mother, her child and family.

“The health and happiness of future generations can be enhanced through the provision of world-class maternity services.

“Pregnancy is a powerful motivator for change and a time when women and their partners make positive lifestyle changes and choices in order to provide the optimal conditions to ensure the health and wellbeing of their unborn baby.”

Betty Drapers of the world, listen up. While research has already shown a link between maternal smoking in pregnancy and attention and behavioral problems in kids and teens, a new study from the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health finds a longer-term correlation: between smoking during pregnancy and eventual criminality in adult children.

“The prevalence of behavior problems is quite high during adolescence,” explained the study’s lead author, Angela Paradis of the Harvard School of Public Health. “But there are groups who are more life-course, persisting [criminal] groups versus those who are just experimenting, asserting independence, or emulating anti-social peers. Looking at outcomes in adolescents you might be mixing two groups. So we wanted to look at only adult outcomes.” (More on Time.com: Study: Smoking During Pregnancy May Result in Uncoordinated Kids)
Researchers found not only a correlation between maternal smoking and the likelihood of criminal activity in grown children, they also found a dose-dependent relationship: women who smoked heavily during pregnancy (more than 20 cigarettes per day) were more likely than moderate smokers to have adult children with an arrest record.
In fact, adults whose mothers were heavy smokers during pregnancy were 30% more likely to have been arrested than those whose mothers were light or nonsmokers. Further, they were more likely to be repeat offenders. (More on Time.com: Photos: Your Doctor Wants You to Smoke)
Researchers used data from 3,766 participants in the Collaborative Perinatal Project based in Providence, R.I., to learn about the smoking habits of expectant mothers in the area. Expecting mothers were interviewed about their smoking habits between 1959 and 1966 — an era during which smoking was not considered a risk to fetal health. These women’s responses provided a more reliable metric than would be available today, given the shame associated with tobacco use during pregnancy. (Also, blood samples were taken from mothers at the time, and were analyzed for evidence of smoking, which corroborated the self-reporting.)
In 1999 and 2000, when all children born to these mothers had reached adulthood, researchers were able to check adult criminal records for all children. Arrest records were then compared with smoking information for the mothers. Researchers also controlled for a variety of confounding factors — everything from parents’ education levels to their own antisocial behavior. (More on Time.com: Video: Au Revoir Cigarettes)
“While we cannot definitively conclude that maternal smoking during pregnancy (particularly heavy smoking) is a causal risk factor for adult criminal offending, the current findings do support a modest causal relationship,” the authors concluded.

Midwives should encourage pregnant women to have their carbon monoxide levels tested to determine whether they smoke or are exposed to secondhand smoke, new guidance suggests. Smoking during pregnancy is known to increase the risk of miscarriage, premature birth, still-birth and sudden unexpected infant death, as well as respiratory and psychological problems in childhood. Active smokers typically have high carbon monoxide levels, but these are also found in people who are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke, such as those living with smokers.

New guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) suggests that testing pregnant mothers would help to ensure they receive appropriate support they need to quit for good or reduce their exposure to secondhand smoke.

The guidance says that midwives should urge women to have the breath test at their first antenatal appointment.

Smokers who are pregnant or have recently given birth should be offered a range of options to help them quit, including referral to NHS Stop Smoking Services, contact details for the NHS Pregnancy Smoking Helpline, and personalised, non-judgemental support from professionals.

Partners who smoke should also be advised to contact NHS Stop Smoking Services for advice on how to quit.

The guidance also recommends that healthcare and smoking cessation staff receive formal training to help them give advice in a non-judgemental way.

Professor Mike Kelly, director of NICE’s Centre for Public Health Excellence, said: “We’ve known for many years that smoking and passive smoking can cause serious illnesses like lung cancer. During pregnancy, smoking puts the health of the women and her unborn baby at great risk both in the short and long term, and small children who are exposed to secondhand smoke are more likely to suffer from respiratory problems.”

The professor insisted that the carbon monoxide test is not designed to “penalise” women who smoke, but to show them how smoking and passive smoking raise their levels of the gas.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said: “Only a very small proportion of women smokers carry on smoking after getting pregnant, but those who do tend to be the heaviest and most addicted smokers who need support and help from healthcare professionals to quit.

“We welcome the NICE guidance which is designed to be practical and encouraging and not to condemn pregnant smokers for their addiction.”

Robin Hewings, Cancer Research UK’s tobacco control manager, commented: “It is good news that NICE has made such a thorough examination of the different options to help pregnant women quit smoking. Smoking in pregnancy does real harm to unborn children – including premature birth and still-birth as well as sudden unexpected death in infancy.

“Pregnant women should receive as much help as possible to give up so they can help give the healthiest possible start to their children. It’s also a good idea to help fathers to quit so children benefit from a smokefree household, reducing the risk of them becoming smokers later in life.”

From info.cancerresearchuk.org, June 30, 2010

Doctors have warned that Scottish pregnant smokers do not know enough about the health risks for themselves and their babies. Currently, 19% of pregnant women are smokers, compared to 29% in 1995. The BMA Scotland said the fact one in five mothers-to-be still smoked showed the Scottish government had a lot to do to educate people on the effects. On the UN’s World No Tobacco Day, the organisation called for more support for adults to quit the habit. Smoking in pregnancy can lead to an increased risk of premature birth and cot death.

It also increases by one-third the risk of stillbirth or death within the first week of a baby’s life.

Children born to parents who smoke are also twice as likely to suffer from serious respiratory infections.
Dr Sally Winning, deputy chairman of BMAS, said: “Around one in five women smoke during pregnancy and, although this is an improvement on previous years, it reflects the lack of knowledge among Scots about the health risks of smoking, not only to themselves, but to the health of their children.”

She said partners and families could help pregnant smokers by quitting at the same time.

Dr Winning said it was “essential” that the Scottish government tackles the issue of parental smoking.

She added: “Parents should be educated about the effects of smoking, not just on their own health, but to their children.

“We need to offer more smoking cessation support to adults and parents to help those who wish to stop smoking stay stopped.”

‘Plain packaging’
Ash Scotland, the anti-smoking charity, said tobacco companies should be prevented from aggressively marketing their products to women.

The charity’s chief executive Sheila Duffy said: “Smoking is still the biggest killer of Scots, with a quarter of all deaths due to tobacco, and we are seeing an increase in smoking-related diseases like lung cancer among women as a result of a rise in women smokers in Scotland 30 to 40 years ago.

“Although teenage smoking is on a downward trend, there are still more girls than boys taking up smoking younger.”

A ban on displays in shops and sales from vending machines comes into force across Scotland next year.

Ms Duffy welcomed the ban, but called for further measures “such as plain packaging and holding tobacco companies more accountable”.

news.bbc.co.uk, June 16, 2010