Study finds increase in birth defects when nicotine patches and gum are used

Pregnant women have been warned not to use nicotine patches or other nicotine replacement therapies such as gum. A Danish study published this week found that the children of users of patches or gum were 60% more likely to be born with birth defects and twice as likely to have skeletal defects such as hip problems.

The study, which was based on almost 77,000 pregnant women, found that there was no major difference in the amount of birth defects between smokers and non-smokers, but the babies of women who had used therapies such as patches or gum in the crucial first three months of their pregnancies were 60 per cent more likely to have a birth defect.

It's worth adding, that there is a school of thought that smoking raises the risk of miscarriage, so women who smoke whilst pregnant may miscarry children rather than give birth to babies with birth defects. The study's findings are likely to leave British women thoroughly confused; after all, it comes less than a week after experts said that pregnant women didn't need to be warned against using patches. The current UK government advice is that smoking is more harmful to unborn children than the possible risk of birth defects.

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