Pregnant smokers

Science (November 29, 2006) - Pregnant smokers may "program" their children to become smokers, suggests research in Tobacco Control is published. The authors base their findings on more than 3,000 mothers and their children, as part of a long term pregnancy study in Brisbane, Australia (MUSP) in 1981.
They assessed the smoking patterns of liveborn children when they reached the age of 21 years in relation to the behavior of their mothers during pregnancy.
About one third of women said they had smoked during their pregnancy.

Babies born to women during pregnancy, they smoked, almost three times as likely to start smoking regularly at or before age 14 and around twice as likely to start smoking after this age as those mothers were non-smokers.
Smoking patterns among children of mothers stopped smoking while pregnant, but then resumed the habit, similar to those mothers who had never smoked.
Actual results, even after adjusting for other factors likely to influence the results will be held.
The authors conclude that their research provides some evidence that smoking during pregnancy has a direct effect on the child's chances of becoming a smoker. And their findings suggest that another reason why pregnant women should be discouraged from smoking.