babyheart.jpgA study of 456 infants in The Netherlands showed that, by age 2 months, babies born to mothers who smoked had higher systolic blood pressures compared to 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,” said Caroline C. Geerts, lead author of the study and a doctoral student at Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care at the University Medical Center Utrecht in The Netherlands. “This association appears to occur in utero and doesn’t appear to be due to the postnatal environment of the infant.”

~American Heart Assoc. Journal Report 7/30/2007