The link between Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and Smoking

How smoking can cause cot deaths

Carbon monoxide, which is released whenever a cigarette is smoked, is considered to be the biggest factor in cot deaths. Smokers are breathing out poisonous carbon monoxide between 12 - 24 hours after smoking. As a result, babies of smoking parents are breathing in this gas when they are in close proximity to their parents.

Research by French and Swedish scientists suggests that smoking during pregnancy is directly linked to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or cot deaths. They have discovered that the nicotine in tobacco damages the receptors in the brain that keep sleeping babies breathing. They found that these receptors are in the same brain area where nicotine lodges. The result is that when a pregnant woman smokes, the nicotine passes into the unborn child’s brain and dulls the effectiveness of the receptors. Once born, if these receptors don’t work fully, they can fail to re-start breathing, causing the baby to die from a lack of oxygen.

On the findings themselves, Dr Gaultier explained: “Until the age of six months, a sleeping baby has regular short breathing pauses lasting three or four seconds, which is quite normal. When the system is working well, the baby therefore lacks oxygen, its body moves a little bit and its brain orders it to snap awake. The baby increases it’s breathing, takes in oxygen and goes back to sleep.” Nicotine from smoking can cause this system to be disrupted leading to tragic consequences.


Smoking parents are bad for a baby’s heart

Parents who smoke during pregnancy and after the birth are putting their baby at risk of a cot death because they may have damaged the infant’s heart. Smoking in pregnancy and after the baby is born are two major risk factors for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Allessandro Muglelli, of the University of Florence pharmacology department, said research had already shown that babies who died from SIDS had higher nicotine levels in their lungs than other children, regardless of what their parents said about smoking. “There is under-reporting of smoking by parents. Women say they have stopped during pregnancy but this is not always true,“ he said. Sarah Kenyon, of the Foundation for Sudden Infant Deaths, said research showed overwhelmingly that smoking by parents during and after pregnancy put babies at risk. “The risk of cot death goes up according to the number of cigarettes smoked in pregnancy,” she said. One study estimated that if smoking in pregnancy were eliminated, incidence of SIDS would fall by a third or more.


Effects of smoking on fertility

For women who smoke, their chances of conceiving are reduced. On average it takes an extra two months to get pregnant if a woman smokes, compared to a non-smoker. However, women who quit smoking a year before attempting to conceive are likely to get pregnant within a similar time period as non-smokers.

It is never too late to give up; a year after quitting, a woman’s chances of conceiving return to that of a woman who has never smoked. The risks of smoking during pregnancy are well documented and include higher infant mortality, increased risk of the baby developing respiratory infection and lower birth weights.

Men who smoke can have low testosterone levels, low sperm count and sperm deformities. Smoking can also cause impotence i.e. the inability to have an erection.