Smoking during pregnancy could have a significant effect on the growth of a woman's future grandchildren, a new study has suggested.
According to statistics published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre last year, 12.7 per cent of women smoke during their pregnancy. Although this figure has been falling consistently since 2006, there's still a long way to go before the harmful effects of smoking for both the mother and unborn child are diminished.
A UK study set out to discover if smoking while pregnant would have a significant effect on the future children of the unborn baby.
Researchers measured the height, weight, body mass index, lean mass, fat mass and waist circumference of children aged between seven and 17. Growth was compared across four categories at each age.
The results revealed that if the paternal grandmother had smoked during pregnancy, but the study mother had not, the girls were taller and bone and lean mass were higher in both sexes. However, if the maternal grandmother smoked while pregnant, her grandsons showed an increase in weight as they got older, but their cardiovascular strength and fitness were better.
It was also found that when both the maternal grandmother and the mother had smoked in pregnancy, girls were smaller in height and weight in comparison to those born to smoking mothers whose own mothers had not smoked.
Professor Marcus Pembrey, clinical geneticist at the Institute of Child Health at University College London, said: 'These likely transgenerational effects from the grandmothers' smoking in pregnancy need to be taken into account in future studies of the effects of maternal smoking on child growth and development.
'If replicated, such studies could be a useful model for the molecular analysis of human transgenerational responses.'
The study has been published in the American Journal of Human Biology. View the abstract here