Healthy Skepticism Library item: 3499

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Use Of Nicotine Patches, Gum In First 12 Weeks Of Pregnancy Can Increase Risk Of Birth Defects, Study Says
kaisernetwork.org ( The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation) 2006 Jan 5
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?category=41

Keywords:
smoking nicotine

Notes:

Ralph Faggotter’s Comments:

Smoking is bad for your unborn baby’s health, but so are nicotine patches.

Sorry, but if you are a smoker and you get pregnant, you will have to go cold turkey!

Full text:

Use Of Nicotine Patches, Gum In First 12 Weeks Of Pregnancy Can Increase Risk Of Birth Defects, Study Says
Category: Women’s Health/OBGYN News
Article Date: 05 Jan 2006

Women who use nicotine patches or gum for smoking cessation in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy could increase the risk of birth defects to their infant, according to a study published in the January issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, London’s Daily Mail reports. Maria Morales-Suarez-Varela of the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia and colleagues looked at 76,768 pregnant women from Denmark. About 20,000 of the women exposed their fetuses to smoke during the first 12 weeks’ gestation. About 56,000 nonsmokers participated in the study, and 250 of them were taking nicotine substitutes, such as patches or gum. According to the Daily Mail, the nicotine substitutes used were not specified but “it is thought they were comparable to types available” in the U.K. (Wheldon, Daily Mail, 1/3). The study finds that infants born to women who smoked did not have a higher rate of birth defects, compared with infants born to nonsmokers (Reuters Health, 1/2). According to the Daily Mail, this might be because smoking raises the risk of miscarriage, resulting in fewer birth defects because of fewer live births (Daily Mail, 1/3). However, there was a greater percentage of birth defects in the group of women taking nicotine substitutes, according to the study. Researchers said the substitutes might be absorbed into the blood stream differently, resulting in higher levels of nicotine than tobacco smoke (Reuters Health, 1/2). The researchers wrote, “Nicotine is fetotoxic, but one could argue that if nicotine replacement … is the only effective smoking cessation tool, for some pregnant women it is a better alternative that smoking because hundreds of potentially harmful substances are replaced by a single one.” The researchers said the link between birth defects and nicotine substitutes should be more carefully studied, “especially for smokers who are considering pregnancy” (Daily Mail, 1/3).

“Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.