The Effects of Alcohol and Smoking During Pregnancy
A group of scientists researched the effects of alcohol and smoking during pregnancy on Canadian women. The researchers had four main objectives: To obtain an estimate of the prevalence of smoking during pregnancy from 2003 to 2011; determining if the prevalence of smoking during pregnancy has increased or decreased over time; investigating whether smoking status is differentially associated with alcohol use during pregnancy; examining the risk factors predictive of alcohol use only, smoking only, and the co-occurrence of alcohol use and smoking during pregnancy. Shown by the research, these actions caused “negative synergistic” effects on the unborn child.
The studies that were used to collect
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The studied showed that the women who smoked during pregnancy were noticeably different from those who did not. Women who smoked during pregnancy were more likely to be younger, unemployed, have a low education, and have a low household income. Also out of the 4077 women who smoked during pregnancy, 444 of those women also admitted to drinking while pregnant. Whereas out of the 18,885 women who did not smoke during pregnancy, 1356 of those women admitted to drinking while pregnant. The results shown of women who smoked during pregnancy was estimated to be 14.3% of women in Canada between 2003 and 2012. Of these women, 52.5% (2141 women) smoked daily and the other 47.5% (1936 women) smoked occasionally. The dangers studied and included in the results concluded that, preterm labor occurred more frequently in women who had been smoking and drinking during pregnancy
Women should become more aware on the dangers of smoking and drinking during pregnancy. Society could fund more smoking/alcohol awareness foundations and encourage pregnant women to seek help or treatment. If this is done, both women and infants will increasingly become happier and healthier. The health of a baby is important, and if more women were educated on the effects of alcohol and smoking then there would be less problems in the health of the baby because of the instinct of the mother in wanting to keep their baby