Unborn babies whose mothers smoke cover their faces more often – report

Ultrasounds show fetuses covering their face and touching their mouth more often if their mothers smoke while pregnant, medical journal study says

Fetuses whose mothers smoke during the pregnancy cover their faces and touch their mouths more frequently, a pilot ultrasound study published in medical journal Acta Paediatrica revealed this week.

The pilot study of 20 pregnant mothers, conducted at Durham and Lancaster universities in England, was designed to find out how fetuses react to smoking. Previous studies have shown that smoking can cause complications during pregnancy.

Our findings concur with others that stress and depression have a significant impact on fetal movements, and need to be controlled for, but additionally these results point to the fact that nicotine exposure per se has an effect on fetal development over and above the effects of stress and depression.