Vitamin C supplements taken by pregnant smokers could help boost lung function in infants through the age of one year.
About 50 percent of smokers who get pregnant continue to smoke, a JAMA Network Journals news release reported. About 12 percent of all pregnant women smoke.
Smoking during pregnancy can decrease pulmonary lung function in the infant. Babies born to smokers have increased instances of respiratory infections and childhood asthma.
In a primate study researchers found vitamin C helped block in-utero effects of nicotine and improved lung development in the offspring.
Researchers looked at 159 newborns of pregnant smokers, 76 were treated with vitamin C and 83 were had been given a placebo. Seventy-six newborns of non-smoking mothers were also examined.
The research team found newborns born to smokers who took vitamin C had improved pulmonary function when compared with babies born to mothers who smoked but did not take the supplements. Infants of the women who were given vitamin C had decreased wheezing through the age of one year.
"Although smoking cessation is the foremost goal, most pregnant smokers continue to smoke, supporting the need for a pharmacologic intervention," the authors wrote, the news release reported. "This emphasizes the important opportunity of in-utero intervention. Individuals who begin life with decreased PFT measures may be at increased risk for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease."
"Vitamin C supplementation in pregnant smokers may be an inexpensive and simple approach (with continued smoking cessation counseling) to decrease some of the effects of smoking in pregnancy on newborn pulmonary function and ultimately infant respiratory morbidities, but further study is required," the researchers said in the news release.
The study does not intend to encourage pregnant smokers to continue the habit.
"Achieving smoking cessation should be the primary goal for women who smoke and who intend to or become pregnant. By preventing her developing fetus and newborn infant from becoming exposed to tobacco smoke, a pregnant woman can do more for the respiratory health and overall health of her child than any amount of vitamin C may be able to accomplish," s Graham L. Hall, Ph.D., of the University of Western Australia said in the news release.
