title: Smoking in Dutch pregnant women and birth weight.
abstract: In this study 796 ambulatory singular pregnant women were questioned about their smoking habits both before and during pregnancy (ambispective). Important covariates such as parity, blood pressure, maternal weight gain, salt- and alcohol consumption and length of gestation were taken into account. At the beginning of pregnancy 52% of the questioned women smoked; 36% smoked in the seventh/eighth month of pregnancy. A dose-response relationship was found between the number of cigarettes smoked per day and birth weight. For those pregnant women who still smoked after 7 months of pregnancy an average birth weight loss of 24 g was found per cigarette per day. Even after controlling for covariates, there still remains an independent influence of smoking on birth weight loss on the average of 19 g for each cigarette smoked per day.
authors.forename: H P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Adriaanse
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Knottnerus
authors.forename: L R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Delgado
authors.forename: H H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.forename: G G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Essed
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001724:Birth Weight; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009426:Netherlands; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires