Smoking Habits, Nicotine Use, and Congenital Malformations

2006

OBJECTIVE: We examined whether maternal smoking and use of nicotine substitutes during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy increased the prevalence of congenital malformations in general and of certain congenital malformations in particular. METHODS: In the Danish National Birth Cohort (1997– 2003) we identified 76,768 pregnancies (and their subsequent singleton births); 20,603 were exposed to tobacco smoking during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Birth outcomes were collected by linkage to the Central Population Register, the National Patients Register, and the National Birth Register. We identified congenital malformations from the Hospital Medical Birth Registry as they were recorded at bir…