Smoking during and after pregnancy can have an irreversible effect on your newborn. Nicotine can transfer through your breast milk preventing the baby from sleeping properly and the odds that a baby will be born with finger or toe deformities are higher.

BBC is reporting that:

Almost nine out of ten mothers who lose a baby to cot death smoked while pregnant, say researchers.

The Bristol University team said the risk also increased with every hour babies were exposed to passive smoke after birth.

The number of cot deaths has fallen, but those linked to smoking have risen.

The report, to be published in the journal Early Human Development, suggests public smoking bans will make people more likely to smoke at home.

Many other studies have shown a clear link between smoking and cot death, but the Bristol research tries to unravel more precisely the cost of smoking both before and after birth.

Smoking among pregnant women has fallen from 30% to 20% in the last 15 years.

The average person believes second hand smoke is not harmless.

Some women quit during the pregnancy, but start up days after growing birth. Let’s hope that this study deters new moms from lighting up…