According to a recent study by a group of researchers from UCLA and other universities, women who use electronic cigarettes during pregnancy are 33% more likely than those who don’t to deliver low-birthweight infants.
According to Annette Regan, the study’s corresponding author and an adjunct assistant professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, low-birthweight infants, or those weighing less than 5.5 pounds, frequently need specialised medical care and are more likely to experience early complications and long-term health problems.
The results of the study, which also included academics from Texas A&M University, the University of San Francisco, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, are available online in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, or PRAMS, a CDC-coordinated project that gathers data statewide on maternal experiences before, during, and shortly after pregnancy, was the source of the data on about 80,000 women that the researchers examined.
One percent of that group admitted to using e-cigarettes in the last three months of their pregnancy, and nearly two thirds of them admitted to also smoking conventional, or “combustible,” cigarettes during that time.
Although just a tiny percentage of participants used e-cigarettes, Regan, who also teaches at the University of San Francisco’s nursing school, was shocked by the number of people who used both e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes while pregnant. Even among e-cigarette users who did not also smoke cigarettes, we discovered higher rates of low birthweight.
The team found that the risk of low-birthweight newborns was 8.1% among e-cigarette users, whether they used them exclusively or in conjunction with traditional cigarettes, compared to 6.1% among non-users, a 33% increase in prevalence. However, they also discovered that among individuals who solely vaped, the prevalence of preterm births increased to 12.4% and low-birthweight births rose to 10.6%, compared to 7.6% for non-users. These increases were not observed among smokers who also use e-cigarettes.
These results are crucial, according to Regan, because an early birth reduces a baby’s opportunity to develop and put on weight. “The last few months of pregnancy are when a baby gains the majority of its weight.”
The CDC classifies nicotine, which is present in both traditional and electronic cigarettes, as a developmental toxin that may harm embryonic development. It is probable that the amount of nicotine exposure is connected with these negative consequences because the researchers discovered that low birthweight was more prevalent among women who used e-cigarettes often than among occasional users. They claimed that additional study was need to support this, though.
The usage of e-cigarettes has been rising in the United States, and these products are occasionally marketed as a less dangerous substitute for cigarettes and a tool for quitting smoking. Despite this, the researchers noted that relatively few studies have examined the potential link between vaping and poor delivery outcomes for pregnant moms.
“The appeal of e-cigarettes among pregnant women who find it difficult to stop smoking may be influenced by the idea that they are less dangerous than combustible cigarette smoking,” Regan said. These results demonstrate that e-cigarettes should not be viewed as a risk-free substitute for traditional cigarettes and that vaping during pregnancy may pose very serious health hazards.
Ref: https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/vaping-and-low-birthweight-babies
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