Pregnant Teens Are Smoking To Have Smaller Babies

In a disturbing new trend, pregnant teens are taking up smoking un order to reduce the size of their babies out of fear of birthing a large child. According to the Daily Mail, new research shows that Australian girls as young as 16 have started smoking while pregnant to give brith to smaller babies. The practice comes with other serious risks for the children, however. Associate Professor Simone Dennis of the Australian National University said that she was “stunned” by the findings of the decade-long smoking study conducted at the university.

“They [teenage girls] had read on packets that smoking can reduce the birth weight of your baby, which is obviously not how the public health message is intended to be taken,” Dennis said. Dennis told Broadly that she “wouldn’t call it a trend,” but said that “it was definitely common enough for me to pick it up as a pattern.” “In every place I went, I’d find at least a few girls talking about it,” she said. Dennis said that many teens had taken up smoking for the first time in order to reduce their baby’s weight, but others who already smoked began smoking more to achieve the result.

According to Shared, the study reveals that there are several reasons that teens have been taking up smoking while pregnant. One reason for the trend is that some teens fear damage to their vagina from giving birth and that they fear that their vagina will never be the same. “Most were scared of splitting or tearing,” Dennis said.

“Quite a big proportion of them had older sisters who’d given birth, or friends, and women tend to talk in horror story terms about their birth experiences.” Another reason is that the teens fear gaining weight while pregnant, so they wanted to keep their baby’s weight down in order to gain less weight themselves. Dennis was asked by Broadly to profile the types of teen girls who have taken up smoking while pregnant. “Broadly speaking, these girls sat outside the middle classes, which is where anti-smoking legislation has been most successful,” Dennis said.

“They were very young, aged between 16 to 19 years old. Most were not in full-time education or work, and they were in low socio-economic groupings.” According to Broadly, smoking while pregnant increases the risk of infant mortality by roughly 40 percent. It can also increase the risk of miscarriages, labor complications, still births, low birth weight, and childhood respiratory problems. Sources: Daily Mail, Broadly, Shared / Photo Credit: Neil Mendoza/Stocksy via Broadly