Cut Smoking to Prevent Stillbirths, Infant Deaths: Experts

Poor women tend to have more stillborn babies and children who die in infancy, but a new study suggests that much of this apparent socioeconomic disparity could be addressed in part by getting low-income women to stop smoking during pregnancy.

Science Daily reported Oct. 10 that Oxford University researchers found that stillbirths were 56 percent more likely among women in the most-deprived areas of Scotland than in the most economically prosperous areas, and infant deaths were 72 percent more likely.

However, they also found that the impoverished women were three times more likely to smoke during pregnancy, and more likely to give birth to preterm or low-birthweight babies.

“Tackling smoking during pregnancy will be important in reducing this inequality gap, but such action on smoking is unlikely to be enough on its own,” said lead researcher Ron Gray of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at Oxford. “Other initiatives to support mothers and children, such as measures to deal with poverty among socially excluded families, will be necessary as well.”

The study was published in the British Medical Journal.