This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
Pregnant smokers risk baby’s hearing, study suggests
A study published in the Journal of Physiology has showed that women who smoke during their pregnancy risk damaging the hearing of their children.
The study made the conclusion after results from a study on mice indicated that exposing foetuses to nicotine before birth and during breastfeeding can cause a key brain region that processes sound to develop abnormally.
The affected region of the brain can also cause children to have learning difficulties and problems with language development.
The research involved adding nicotine to the drinking water of pregnant mice. It found that those offspring which were born in these conditions had a reduced neuronal sensitivity in the inner ear, compared to those offspring which were not exposed to nicotine water.
The news comes as studies have shown that nicotine exposure during pregnancy can harm the brain development of foetuses and increase the risk of premature birth.
Professor Ursula Koch, lead researcher, from the Free University of Berlin said: "We do not know how many other parts of the auditory system are affected by nicotine exposure. More research is needed about the cumulative effect of nicotine exposure and the molecular mechanisms of how nicotine influences the development of neurons in the auditory brain stem.
"If mothers smoke during pregnancy and their children show learning difficulties at school, they should be tested for auditory processing deficits.”
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