Health aNd Fitness Guide

Pregnant women’s tobacco use and exposure to second-hand smoke could impede or reverse efforts to improve maternal and child health in developing nations. Researchers, after interviewing 7,961 pregnant women in nine countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, including two places in India and one in Pakistan, found that 18 per cent of expectant mothers smoked cigarettes. One-third of them used smokeless tobacco and nearly half were exposed to second-hand smoking. Latin American nations topped in smoking, and India showed high prevalence of use of smokeless tobacco. While smoking can lead to pre-term births, low-birth weights and infant death, and cancer, another study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, said that children born to mothers who quit smoking were happier and more compliant. Smoking mothers had children who were grumpy and heavy smokers.