As surprising as it may be, many women smokers continue to smoke during pregnancy. A recent study claims that chewing nicotine gum might help reduce the number of cigarettes pregnant smokers smoke each day.
For this study, 194 pregnant smokers were evaluated over a period of 12 weeks. The women were asked to reduce the number of cigarettes smoked each day, and to substitute the gum when needed. Results show the number of cigarettes smoked per day dropped by 5.7. And while smoking increases the risk of low-birthweight and/or premature delivery, babies of women who chewed nicotine gum weighed more, and were delivered closer to term than babies of smokers who didn’t chew the gum.
Regardless, nicotine gum hasn’t been approved for use in pregnant women. In fact, animal tests have shown that nicotine exposure causes cellular abnormalities that may increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.
Basically, this study highlights what has already been known – don’t smoke when you are pregnant! If you can’t stop smoking, don’t get pregnant.
