Maternal nutritional state and smoking habits, interuterine and post natal growth

Abstract

In order to study the relationship between cigarette smoking, nutritional state during pregnancy, the birth weight of infants and their growth during the first year of life, a retrospective study was performed based on data collected in a pediatric clinic. The results showed that children of mal-nourished women have weights and heights lower than children of normal and overweight pregnant women, and that children born to smoking mothers were smaller and thinner when compared to children born to non-smoking mothers. The authors also discovered that these differences almost disappeared by the end of the first year of life, that is to say, the gestational influence in útero did not result in postnatal growth retardation.