The World Health Organization recommends that pregnant women and those preparing to become mothers give up bad habits, as they increase the likelihood of miscarriage, premature birth and other serious complications. A new US study evaluates the combined effect of alcohol and smoking on fetal survival. wp-content/uploads/2023/03/46f75211dd64b95de2dee79987c2c09e.jpg» />
For two years, scientists tracked 11.6 thousand pregnancies of more than 8.5 thousand women from South Africa and the northern United States. For the study, data were collected on the bad habits of expectant mothers at different times, experts also recorded all cases of stillbirth — the death of the fetus for a period of 20-28 weeks. The results of the study are published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
During the observation period, 145 stillbirths and 82 late stillbirths were registered in this group, that is, at a gestational age of more than 28 weeks. Half of the cases (51%) were not associated with alcohol or smoking. However, 18% of women reported drinking alcohol and smoking after the first trimester of pregnancy. Another 9% used only alcohol, 22% could not give up tobacco.
Analysis of the data showed that both bad habits during pregnancy increase the risk of stillbirth by almost three times (2.78) compared with women who who never drank, smoked, or gave up their habits before the second trimester. In pregnant women who drank only alcohol, the probability of losing a child is increased by 2.22 times compared with women who refused alcohol. Smoking increases this risk by 1.6 times.
«These results suggest that the combination of drinking and smoking after the first trimester of pregnancy, compared with no exposure or not smoking before the end of the first trimester, may be associated with significantly increased risk of late stillbirth,” the study authors reported.