Smoking in pregnancy raises risk of kidney damage for the unborn

SMOKING during pregnancy can condemn a child to kidney disease, according to new research.

Children whose mothers consumed cigarettes while they were in the womb were more likely to have signs of damage, said scientists.

The study showed maternal smoking during pregnancy was one of the risk factors of childhood proteinuria, an abnormal amount of protein in urine which flags up kidney disease.

The effects on kidney health were evident in children as young as three.

Professor Koji Kawakami of Kyoto University in Japan said: “Maternal smoking during pregnancy is known to be associated with pre-term birth, low birth weight and neonatal asphyxia.

“The findings from this study suggest an additional adverse effect of maternal smoking during pregnancy.”

Neonatal asphyxia is a lack of oxygen around birth that can lead to brain damage.

The researchers carried out the study by looking for the presence of proteinuria in the urine of 44,595 children from pregnancy to three years of age.

In the population examined, 4.4 per cent of women smoked only before pregnancy and 16.7 per cent continued smoking while pregnant.

The frequencies of proteinuria in the child at age three were 1.7 per cent when mothers continued to smoke during pregnancy, 1.6 per cent when mothers stopped smoking during pregnancy, and 1.3 per cent when mothers were non-smokers.

Prof Kawakami said maternal smoking during pregnancy was associated with a 24 per cent increased risk of child proteinuria.