Mom's smoking may increase SIDS risk

CINCINNATI, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say the greater risk of sudden infant death syndrome in babies of mothers who smoke may be linked to nicotine.

Hemant Sawnani and colleagues at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center reviewed human and animal studies concerning SIDS and concluded nicotine may negatively affect the development of the brain centers regulating breathing.

The study, published in Pediatric Allergy, Immunology and Pulmonology, noted infants of mothers who smoked during pregnancy had more pauses in breathing -- infant apnea -- and were less able to wake up from sleep in response to low oxygen.

"These findings highlight the importance of public health policies to prevent the development of tobacco dependence in adolescent girls and the importance of treatment of maternal tobacco dependence prior to pregnancy," the journal's editor, Dr. Harold Farber of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, says in a statement.

"Perhaps when young women are freed from the chains of tobacco addiction we can then truly say that 'you have come a long way' for your baby."

Farber explained SIDS is also known as crib death. He says an infant's risk of SIDS -- the leading cause of death during the first year of life -- is increased two- to five-fold by smoke exposure in utero.