As he smoking as the mother's overweight They are risk factors in pregnancy. They are related to birth defects, especially an increased risk of congenital heart defects in the baby, as evidenced by a study published in the journal Heart.
It is not the first investigation that associates the effect of tobacco with cardiac problems in the fetus, especially in the first trimester of pregnancy when the main organs are formed.
As researchers from the University Medical Center of Groningen (The Netherlands) have shown, women who are overweight and smoke during pregnancy could damage the developing heart of their babies.
To reach this conclusion, almost 800 fetuses and babies with congenital heart defects were analyzed, without any other type of birth defect and compared with more than 300 fetuses and babies born with chromosomal abnormalities, but without heart defects.
According to the results, overweight women (body mass index of 25 or more) who smoked during pregnancy had 2.5 times more likely to have a baby with a congenital heart defect that women who smoked or were overweight in pregnancy.
They also found that babies born to overweight mothers who smoked during pregnancy had triple the risk of anomalies from the exit route, in which the blood flow from the ventricles of the heart to the pulmonary artery or the aorta is reduced or blocked.
Congenital heart abnormalities are one of the most common birth defects, and in just 15 percent of cases a probable cause is identified.
Therefore, quitting smoking and controlling weight during pregnancy are care that the mother should take to reduce the risk of congenital heart defects in the baby.
