"Smoking While Pregnant Could Harm Child’s Breathing" - Robert Preidt
Children born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy are apt to have breathing issues in childhood and beyond, a new study has found. The findings point to a mother's "smoking in pregnancy as the period of secondhand exposure that is more strongly associated with worse lung function in asthmatic children," said the study’s lead researcher, Stacey-Ann Whitaker Brown, MD, fellow in the division of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "Maternal smoking in pregnancy may set children with asthma on a trajectory of poor lung function in later childhood, and other studies suggest this effect may be lifelong,” she added. "As we learn more about improving asthma outcomes in children, it is important to find out not only what environmental exposures are implicated in poor lung function, but also when those exposures are most harmful," Dr. Whittaker Brown said.
- Stacey-Ann Whitaker Brown, MD, Fellow, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
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