NEWS: Nicotine products safe for pregnant smokers

As reported by The Telegraph, research from Queen Mary University of London reveals that using e-cigarettes or nicotine patches during pregnancy poses no harm to mothers or babies, offering a safe alternative for those struggling to quit smoking

Researchers used data from more than 1,100 pregnant smokers attending 23 hospitals in England and one stop-smoking service in Scotland to compare pregnancy outcomes.

The study concluded that regular use of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) during pregnancy is not associated with adverse pregnancy events or poor pregnancy outcomes.

Almost half (47 per cent) used vapes and just over a fifth (21 per cent) used nicotine patches.

They even found that vapes lessened respiratory infections, possibly because their main ingredients have antibacterial effects.

Prof Peter Hajek, the lead researcher from the Wolfson Institute of Population Health at Queen Mary University of London, said: “The trial contributes answers to two important questions, one practical and one concerning our understanding of risks of smoking.

“E-cigarettes helped pregnant smokers quit without posing any detectable risks to pregnancy compared with stopping smoking without further nicotine use.

“Using nicotine-containing aids to stop smoking in pregnancy thus appears safe.

“The harms to pregnancy from smoking, in late pregnancy at least, seem to be due to other chemicals in tobacco smoke rather than nicotine.”

The team measured salivary nicotine levels at baseline and towards the end of pregnancy and gathered information about each participant’s use of cigarettes or types of nicotine replacement therapy.

Any respiratory symptoms, birth weight, and other data of their babies at birth were also recorded.

Prof Linda Bauld, Bruce and John Usher chair in Public Health at the University of Edinburgh – the oldest professorship of public health in the UK – and a study co-investigator, said: “Clinicians, pregnant women and their families have questions about the safety of using nicotine replacement therapy or e-cigarettes during pregnancy.

“Women who continue to smoke during pregnancy often find it difficult to stop but products like NRT or e-cigarettes can help them to do so.

“These results suggest that NRT or vaping can be used as part of a quit attempt without adverse effects.

“Our findings should be reassuring, and provide further important evidence to guide decision-making on smoking cessation during pregnancy.”

Women who smoked and also used one of the nicotine replacement products during their pregnancy had babies with the same birth weights as women who only smoked.

However, babies born to women who did not smoke during pregnancy did not differ in birth weight, whether the women did or did not use nicotine products.

Regular use of nicotine products was not associated with any adverse effects on mothers or their babies.

Prof Tim Coleman, from the University of Nottingham’s Smoking in Pregnancy Research Group, which led trial recruitment, said: “Smoking in pregnancy is a massive public health problem and nicotine-containing aids can help pregnant women to stop smoking, but some clinicians are reticent about providing NRT or e-cigarettes in pregnancy.

“This study provides further, reassuring evidence that tobacco smoke chemicals rather than nicotine are responsible for smoking-related harms, so  using nicotine-containing aids to quit is vastly preferable to continuing to smoke when pregnant.”