PROVIDENCE -- A researcher at Women & Infants Hospital looked at the connection between smoking during pregnancy and the effect it has on that mother's baby through the age of 12.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention links smoking during pregnancy to prematurity and a higher risk of sudden infant death syndrome. But new research done by Dr. Kristen Stone of Women & Infants Hospital shows it can also affect a child's sleep.
The study looked at more than 800 children whose mothers provided information about their substance use during pregnancy.
"Just over 80 percent of them weren't just smoking cigarettes. So, that's the unique sample we were looking at. They were using some other type of drug as well," Stone said.
What was surprising was this:
"We did not find an association between any of those other four substances -- opiates, cocaine, marijuana or alcohol -- and sleep problems in the children," Stone said. "The only one we found that was associated with sleep problems through age 12 in children was prenatal nicotine exposure. That was a surprise."
It is a reason to kick the habit before becoming pregnant. And for those women who have given up cigarettes during pregnancy, Stone is enrolling for a new study.
"The majority of those go back to smoking in the first month, and a very high percentage of them go back to smoking in the first week. Our goal with the new study is to help moms stay smoke-free after they go home with their baby," Stone said.
If you fall in to this category and have not yet given birth, you can sign up for this study. It will include relapse prevention intervention.
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