Mothers Who Smoke May See the Effects in Their Unborn Babies

If a woman smokes during pregnancy, doctors may actually be able to tell simply by looking at the fetus. Scientists have found that the harmful effects of smoking may be reflected in the facial movements of the mothers' unborn babies.

In this latest study, the researchers looked at 4-D ultrasound scans, which are extremely precise. This showed that fetuses whose mothers were smokers had a significantly higher rate of mouth movements rather than the normal declining rate of movements expected in a fetus during pregnancy.

So why do these mouth movements occur? The researchers believe that it's possible that the fetal central nervous system, which controls movements in general and facial movements in particular, did not develop at the same rate and in the same manners as in fetuses of mothers who did not smoke during pregnancy.

Previous studies have reported a delay in relation to speech processing abilities in infants exposed to smoking during pregnancy. While maternal stress and depression also have a significant impact on fetal movements, the increase in mouth and touch movements is even higher in babies whose mothers smoke.

"Fetal facial movement patterns differ significantly between fetuses of mothers who smoked compared to those of mothers who didn't smoke," said Nadja Reissland, lead author of the new study, in a news release. "Our findings concur with others that stress and depression have a significant impact on fetal movements, and need to be controlled for, but additionally these results point to the fact that nicotine exposure per se has an effect on fetal development over and above the effects of stress and depression. A larger study is needed to confirm these results and to investigate specific effects, including the interaction of maternal stress and smoking."

The findings are published in the journal Acta Paediatrica.

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