06/02/2023

Smoking during pregnancy is one of the most important risk factors for poor outcomes that increase your diabetes risk

Smoking during pregnancy is one of the most important risk factors for poor pregnancy outcomes. In the United States, 10.7 percent of women smoke or smoke during pregnancy. In doing so, they expose their children to a higher risk of premature birth, low birth weight and late growth than their non-smoking counterparts.
In addition to these risks, an international team of researchers led by Dr. Yael Bar-Zeev of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in collaboration with Dr. Hayley Zalalim and Professor Ilana Chertok of the University of Ohio, presented that smoking during pregnancy can also increase women’s risk. For the development of gestational diabetes (GDM). Gestational diabetes carries a higher risk of complications during pregnancy and childbirth, such as macamy (older than average children) and caesarean section. The findings were published this week in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Bar-Zeev and his team conducted a secondary analysis of data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the so-called Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS). For this study, they examined 222,408 women who gave birth between 2009 and 2015, of whom 12,897 (5.3%) Women. Gestational diabetes has been diagnosed.
Scientists found that pregnant women who smoke the same or more cigarettes a day after pregnancy are nearly 50% more likely to develop gestational diabetes. Pregnant women who reduce the number of cigarettes are still 22 percent more likely than women who have not smoked or stopped smoking two years before pregnancy.
“Ideally, women should quit smoking before trying to get pregnant,” Bar-Zeev warned. “In addition, due to the high risks to pregnant smokers, it is imperative to access certain smoking cessation programmes during pregnancy. Currently, in the United States and Israel, these services may not be sufficiently accessible or may not adapt to pregnant women and must change. “