MELBOURNE, Apr 6, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Australian researchers say babies
born to a mother who smokes are more likely to be slower to wake and this may
explain sudden infant death syndrome.
Rosemary Horne and doctoral student Heidi Richardson of Monash University
compared babies of mothers who smoked both during the pregnancy and after the
baby was born with babies who lived in a smoke-free environment.
Horne said the study suggested that maternal smoking can impair a baby's ability
to respond to external stimuli, which may explain their increased risk of SIDS.
"Those babies whose mothers smoked did not have as many arousals overall and the
progression of the arousal response through the brain was also impaired," Horne
says in a statement.
"Mothers who smoked while pregnant and continued to smoke afterward
significantly increased their baby's chances of succumbing to SIDS."
Although the exact cause of SIDS is unknown, research suggests that an
impairment of the arousal process from sleep in response to a life-threatening
situation is involved, Horne says.
The study, published in the journal Sleep, involved 12 healthy, full-term
infants born to mothers who smoked an average of 15 cigarettes per day. Their
arousal responses during daytime sleep were monitored and compared with that of
healthy infants who were born to non-smoking mothers.
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