Moms Who Smoked as Teens More Likely to Deliver Smaller Babies

After falling 8 percent from 2007 to 2014, the preterm rate has increased for the second year in a row according to new data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. Some of the reasons for these statistics include: lack of prenatal care, obesity, tobacco use and some fertility treatments can all lead to early births. Teenagers and women who have babies spaced too closely together also have higher rates of preterm birth.

The NCHS team found that women of Asian ethnic origin had the lowest rates of preterm births, at 8.6 percent, while Black women had the highest rates, at 13.75 percent of all births.

What’s even more startling is that fact that even if you’re no longer a smoker, but have smoked in your younger years, it can still affect your pregnancy years later. A new study suggests a woman’s risk of having a baby with a low birth weight is higher if she starts smoking in her teens.

That’s because women who start smoking as teens are far more likely to smoke during pregnancy, which increases the risk of having a smaller baby.

In turn, babies who have