Quitting smoking boosts health of babies

WOMEN who stop smoking as late as when pregnancy is confirmed can dramatically boost the health of their baby, scientists have discovered.

In the largest study of its kind, researchers led by Professor Nick Macklon, a consultant gynaecologist at the Complete Fertility Centre at the Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton, in England, studied the outcomes of 50,000 pregnancies.

They found that women who gave up smoking at the time of conception or when their pregnancy was confirmed gave birth to babies with a similar weight to those born to mothers who had never smoked, cutting the risk of complications associated with low birth weight.