Women Smoking Cigarettes

Whereas the majority of pregnant women know that smoking is very dangerous for the health of their developing babies, still, many of them are not able to quit their nasty habit. However, the positive news for those women is that scientists think that consuming Vitamin C can help to prevent the negative effects of smoking on unborn children. Lighting up while being pregnant can result in premature childbirth, problems in development of fetus and even death of fetus. Moreover, it could as well the development of baby’s lungs, since nicotine can penetrate into the placenta. Consequently, infants could get less lung function and be exposed to respiratory diseases.

Recently, researchers revealed that Vitamin C provides a hand of help for those women who can not kick down their smoking habit while expecting, as can offer a protection against some diseases.

During a research carried out by the Oregon Health & Science University research group, the scientists discovered that pregnant monkey given both vitamin C and nicotine and, gave birth to babies with a close to normal level of air flow in the lungs. The scientists divided pregnant monkey into three groups – one group was given both nicotine and Vitamin C, second group given neither Vitamin C nor nicotine, and the third given only nicotine. The amount of nicotine was similar to that consumed by average pregnant woman. The second group, which received no nicotine was used as the control group.

Whereas the research was performed on monkeys, the research group admit the findings are pertinent for humans as well. However, they believe that more research has to be carried out to estimate how much Vitamin C has to be consumed by pregnant women to achieve similar health benefits, and to check and guarantee that higher intake of Vitamin C during pregnancy doesn’t lead to adverse effects in pregnant women and their babies.

The research group highlighted that though consumption of Vitamin C during pregnancy had positive effects on the babies, it still could not prevent all negative effect of smoking during pregnancy. For instance, Vitamin C doesn’t counteract lower body weight and brain development.

Another positive effect of consuming Vitamin C by pregnant women is that it can reduce the odds of their waters coming too early. This benefit is found among all pregnant women, regardless of whether they are smokers or not. According to a study performed by Mexican National Institute of Perinatology, pregnant women were divided into two groups, with one group consuming 100mg of vitamin C daily, and the other not. The study found that the group who took the vitamin C, had fewer cases of their waters coming early, thus reducing the risk of having infections related to premature birth.