Vitamin C Improves Lung Function in Babies Born to Pregnant Smokers

Pregnant women who smoke cause great damage to the lungs of the baby, triggering wheezing, asthma and several other problems. But those who find it difficult to cut the habit of smoking during pregnancy should consider taking vitamin C.

According to the latest study, consuming vitamin C during pregnancy improves the baby's lung function and also prevents wheezing in the first year of life. This study was presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Washington, DC.

Lead author Cynthia T. McEvoy, MD, MCR, FAAP, associate professor of pediatrics at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Doernbecher Children's Hospital says that vitamin C is safe, inexpensive and above all, a simple treatment that lowers the impact of smoking during pregnancy on the infant's respiratory health.

The study was conducted on 159 women who were less than 22 weeks pregnant and who found it difficult to quit smoking. The researchers assigned them to take vitamin C or a placebo each day along with a prenatal vitamin. The investigators and participants were unaware of the content of the capsule. Apart from this, they even monitored a group of non-smoking pregnant women.

The newborns' pulmonary function were tested at 48 hours of life. Researchers carefully observed the way the newborns breathed in and out, the size of the lungs and how the lungs moved. They noticed that pregnant smokers who took vitamin C had babies with an improved lung function at birth when compared to those whose mothers consumed the placebo.

During the first year of life, the parents were contacted by researchers to check for wheezing and other respiratory problems. They saw infants whose mothers took vitamin C had less wheezing when compared to those who took the placebo.

Nearly 21 percent of infants in the vitamin C group reported one episode of wheezing when compared to 40 percent of those in the placebo group and 27 percent born to the non-smokers group.

"Though the lung function of all babies born to smokers in our study was improved by supplemental vitamin C, our preliminary data suggest that vitamin C appeared to help those babies at the greatest risk of harm during their development from their mother's smoking in pregnancy," Dr. McEvoy was quoted as saying in a news release.