‘Consuming nicotine during pregnancy boosts risk of sudden infant death’ Infants

Infants whose mothers have used snus, a moist oral tobacco product, during pregnancy ran three times the risk of sudden infant death, according to a new comprehensive registry study. The risk was much lower if the mother had stopped taking snus before the first antenatal visit, the study said.The researchers, from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, concluded that all types of nicotine products should be avoided during pregnancy.The study is published in the journal Pediatric Research.’Fortunately, the incidence of sudden infant death is very low, but we can see that taking snus or smoking while pregnant is associated with an increased risk,” said Anna Gunnerbeck, paediatrician at the Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital and researcher at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet.While it is known that smoking during pregnancy is a risk factor in sudden infant death, little research has been done on snus and other nicotine products, the study said.To address this, the researchers conducted a registry study comprising over two million babies born in Sweden between 1999 and 2019, the study said.