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Pregnant women who smoke have a much higher incidence of genetic defects in calls taken from the womb during pregnancy - defects that are linked to cancer. Smoking in pregnancy isn't a good idea. It's associated with lung damage in the developing baby, low birth weight and complications with the pregnancy itself. There have also been concerns that maternal smoking raises the risk of some cancers in the child - particularly leukaemia. A recent study has raised the ante on this cancer link. They compared a group of pregnant women who had smoked at least ten cigarettes a day for ten years or more to a similar group of non smoking pregnant women. They were selected so that there were few other factors like passive smoking which could have confused the results. All the women had a routine amniocentesis - where fluid is taken from around the baby in the womb and cells analysed for chromosome damage. They found that in the pregnant smokers, there was a much higher incidence of genetic defects in the babies' cells - and were often of the kind that have been described in relation to cancer. Moreover, when the researchers went looking for where the chromosome damage might be focussed, one of the places was a region which is thought to be involved in causing leukaemia. So stay away from those cigarettes, girls.
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