Maternal Smoking and Fetal Growth Retardation

To determine whether the fetal growth-retarding effect of maternal cigarette smoking could be due to lower dietary intake in smokers than in nonsmokers, the pediatric group of the Children's Hospital of Winnipeg assessed the energy and nutrient intake of 302 smoking and 234 nonsmoking women toward the end of the last trimester of pregnancy. The smokers had significantly smaller infants, but pregnancy weight gain was not different. Daily dietary intake of the smokers was not less than that of the nonsmokers; in fact, for some nutrients it was significantly greater. Therefore, the authors concluded that fetal growth retardation due to smoking is not caused by the mother's diminished intake of food.