According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), smoking during pregnancy can greatly increase the risks that a child will be born with webbed, excess, or missing fingers or toes.
In fact, this study, conducted by plastic surgeons, indicates that smoking even a pack a day and increase the risk of finger or toe deformities by nearly 30 percent. Plastic surgeons have a vested interest in the results of this study because they are the medical experts responsible for conducting reconstructive hand surgery or foot surgery to correct these birth deformities.
Board certified plastic surgery and author of the study, Dr. Benjamin Chang, says that performing reconstructive surgery on children with limb, toe, and finger deformities represents a large portion of his practice. “Parents would ask why this happened to their child, but I didn’t have an answer,” says Dr. Chang, “This study shows that even minimal smoking during pregnancy can significantly increase the risk of having a child with various toe and finger defects.”
In order to determine what factors increased the risk of birth defects, plastic surgery researchers evaluated the records of 6.8 million United States births in 2001 and 2002. They found 5,171 cases of children born with a digit deformity where their mother smoked during pregnancy. These women did not have any medical complications—such as diabetes, high blood pressure, or heart disease—that might have increased the risk of birth problems.
The researchers discovered that the risk of deformities was dependant on the amount of cigarettes a woman smoked during pregnancy. Women who smoked less than ten cigarettes a day increased the risk of deformities by 29 percent. Those who smoked between 11 and 20 cigarettes daily increased the risk of birth defects by 38 percent. Pregnant women who smoked over 20 cigarettes a day raised the risk to nearly 80 percent.
Dr. Chang reports that he expected to find a correlation between smoking and digit deformities, but he did not expect the results to be so dramatic.
Smoking is a difficult thing to quit, even if you are pregnant. Quitting smoking, however, is one of the BEST things you can do for your unborn child. Other studies have also found an increased risk in using nicotine patched during pregnancy. If you are pregnant and smoke, you should speak with your doctor about strategies that can help you quit. Stress management, curbing withdrawal symptoms, and other relevant issues can be tackled.