It isn’t news that smoking is harmful to a person’s body. We know that women who smoke while they are pregnant can cause harm to their child in a variety of ways. A new study finds that babies that are exposed to cigarette smoke while in the womb end up doing poorly on reading comprehension tests later.
Many of us have heard about studies that point out the harm that can come to developing babies who were exposed to cigarette smoke before birth. I think everyone has heard that smoking causes all kinds of health problems for adults who smoke, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that it can also harm babies whose mother’s smoke. A new study finds yet another reason not to smoke during pregnancy.
A study lead by Dr. Jeffrey Gruen of Yale University found something new. Children who were born to mothers who smoked while they were pregnant ended up struggling on tests that were specifically designed to show how accurately a child can read aloud and also if the child understood what he or she was reading.
The kids who had been exposed to the equivalent of the amount of nicotine that is in one pack of cigarettes per day, (while the child was in utero), scored 21% lower on reading comprehension tests than their peers, who had non-smoking mothers, did. This was true even after taking into account other factors such as if the mother was married, if she had a low-paying job, and if she read books to her child.
In other words, there is a significant difference between the reading comprehension level of kids who were exposed to cigarette smoke in utero and the reading comprehension of kids who were not. This could be the difference between doing well at school and having a very difficult and frustrating educational experience. It may be the difference between the child being placed in a mainstream classroom or into a Special Education class.
There are many types of special needs that cannot be caused by the actions, or inactions, of a woman who is pregnant. Many are due to genetic factors that either are present, or are not present, when the baby is conceived. However, it is entirely possible to prevent a child from having stunted reading comprehension due to exposure to cigarette smoke. Don’t smoke while pregnant!
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