Cigarette smoking in pregnancy: its influence on birth weight and perinatal mortality.
In a British population cigarette smoking during pregnancy increased the late fetal plus neonatal mortality rate by 28% and reduced birth weight by 170 g, and these differences persist even after allowing for a number of "mediating" maternal and social variables. A change in smoking habit by the end of the fourth month of pregnancy places a mother in the risk category appropriate to her changed habit. This evidence should have important implications for health education aimed at getting pregnant mothers to give up smoking.
D001724:Birth Weight; D005260:Female; D005313:Fetal Death; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011247:Pregnancy; D012907:Smoking / Q000150:complications*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013997:Time Factors; D006113:United Kingdom