We know: smoking during pregnancy is extremely dangerous for the baby. All scientific studies are unanimous: smoking in pregnant women increases the risk of behavioral problems in children, promotes early puberty, infertility and drug addiction, decreases the size of the brain, causes heart defects… In short, it is better to crush your cigarette as soon as the pregnancy test turns green!
A study conducted by Kyoto University (in Japan) adds a new “side effect” to this already impressive list: maternal smoking also disrupts kidney function in children. According to this work, published in the specialized journal Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN), babies born to mothers who smoked were about 1.24 times more likely to suffer from kidney problems compared to the average.
Eventually, chronic kidney failure
The Japanese researchers worked with 44,595 children, whom they followed from birth until their third year. In the test group, 4.4% of mothers smoked before becoming pregnant, and 16.4% of these continued to smoke during their pregnancy. Regularly, the children were entitled to a urine test, which was used to measure the level of protein in their urine (albumin, in particular): when these are too present, we speak of proteinuria. However, this condition generally announces kidney problems: thechronic renal failure, for example.
Results ? At the age of 3 years, 1.7% of children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy suffered from proteinuria against 1.6% for children whose mothers had stopped smoking at the start of pregnancy and 1.3% for children whose mothers were non-smokers.
“If you are pregnant, think about the health of your baby: stop smoking immediately,” advise the Japanese researchers. We have been warned!
To read :
Maternal smoking would increase the risk of behavioral disorders
Electronic cigarettes and pregnancy: a danger for the fetus
Tobacco and pregnancy: it’s time to quit
