UTRECHT, Netherlands, July 31 (UPI) -- Dutch researchers found infants had substantially higher blood pressure in their first months if their mothers smoked during pregnancy.
The study, published in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association, showed that, by age 2 months, babies born to mothers who smoked had higher systolic blood pressures compared with those whose mothers didn't smoke and weren't exposed to smoke during pregnancy.
"Our findings indicate maternal smoking during pregnancy has a direct substantial impact on systolic blood pressure in early infancy and is another reason for women not to smoke during pregnancy," study lead author Caroline C. Geerts of the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands said in a statement.
"This association appears to occur in utero and doesn't appear to be due to the postnatal environment of the infant."
The study shows the rise in systolic blood pressure was more likely found in males and notes that it has already been shown that male infants react to pain with an increase in systolic blood pressure.
The researchers also found that newborns of mothers who smoked during pregnancy were significantly lighter, shorter and had a smaller chest circumference than other offspring.
