Causes of SIDS?
Smoking Facts About Secondhand Smoking Before Birth

There are many suspected causes of SIDS.

The smoking facts reveal that one of the dangers of smoking cigarettes during pregnancy is a three fold increase in the risk of sudden infant death.

What is SIDS?

S-I-D-S stands for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. More commonly referred to as "crib death" or "cot death" this term refers to a sudden and unexpected death of a baby during sleep, that is unexplainable from autopsy findings.

Researchers have been seeking the cause of SIDS for years. The idea that there was some interference with the infant's ability to get enough oxygen to sustain life while sleeping has always been at the core of research. After all there has to be a reason why a healthy infant would simply stop breathing.

Some success in reducing the prevalence of SIDS has been achieved by teaching parents to place infants on their backs for sleeping.

Causes of SIDS - Latest Research on SIDS and Smoking

While the relationship between maternal smoking and sudden infant death has been known for some time, the smoking facts reveal that the real dangers of cigarette smoking was during the prenatal period. There was clearly secondhand smoking occurring even when the infant was not breathing!

New evidence from the researchers at McMaster University may explain the significance of this prenatal nicotine exposure on the infant's ability to sustain normal breathing during sleep in the extrauterine environment.

They found that prenatal exposure to nicotine has a direct effect on the part of the brain that is responsible for arousal when oxygen levels decrease. The effect seems to be one of suppression.

Nicotine exposure in utero appears to suppress some of the normal adaptive mechanisms that help infants to adapt to life outside the womb.

The researchers suggest this may explain the relationship between maternal smoking during pregnancy and SIDS.

More Smoking Facts About the Dangers of Cigarette Smoking
and
Causes of SIDS

• The World Health Organization - Tobacco Free Initiative (1999) reports that there is enough evidence to conclude that maternal smoking causes an increase in sudden infant death.

"...infants of mothers who smoke have almost five times the risk of SIDS compared with infants of mothers who do not smoke..."

• the 2004 report of the US Surgeon General:

"The evidence is sufficient to infer a causal relationship between sudden infant death syndrome and maternal smoking during and after pregnancy."

• Health Canada website:

"Nobody knows how to prevent SIDS, but the latest research shows that there are things you can do to make your baby safer:

• Put your baby on his or her back to sleep;
• Avoid putting too many clothes and covers on your baby;
• Make sure no one smokes around your baby; and
• Breastfeed your baby, it may give some protection against SIDS."

So the question still remains. Is smoking one of the causes of SIDS?

But is this the really important question? If you are a smoker and a baby is now or soon to be in your life shouldn't the most important question be:

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