Association between Maternal Smoking and Craniosynostosis
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted a study to determine the link between craniosynostosis and maternal smoking. Craniosynostosis is a disorder in which the sutures in the skull fuse together too early. This causes a misshapen skull, an underdeveloped head size, and increased pressure on the brain. CDC has also documented that craniosynostosis occurs twice as often in males than in females, and that craniosynostosis affects about 5 per 10,000 infants that were live-born. This particular study focused on babies born between 1968 and 1980 in Metropolitan Atlanta.
Here are the findings:
With “moderate maternal smoking” classified as five to fourteen cigarettes each day, infants exposed to it were four times as likely to develop craniosynostosis when compared to infants who had zero maternal smoking exposure. Also, CDC asserts that women who smoke at all during their pregnancies, when compared with women who never smoked during the pregnancy, are twice as likely to have children who suffer with craniosynostosis.
*Smoking during pregnancy is not the sole cause of craniosynostosis. However, this study determines that it can increase the risks. There are many unknown causes of craniosynostosis, and there may be genetic dispositions that are more susceptible than others.
*The full report of this study can be found here.
© 2003
