A link between vaping when pregnant and sharing a bed with baby has emerged as a potential risk factor for deaths among infants. <\/p>\n
A new study, published by researchers at the Universities of Auckland and Otago, looked at 101 sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUDI) in New Zealand between 2022 and 2023. <\/p>\n
They had detailed information about maternal nicotine exposure and the infant’s sleep environment for 66 of the cases.<\/p>\n
Smoking and\/or vaping was recorded in nearly three-quarters of the 66 cases that researchers had detailed information for. Nearly 70% of infants had died while bed-sharing. <\/p>\n
Maternal vaping was reported in half of the cases involving direct bed sharing \u2013 compared to one in five cases where bed sharing was not reported. <\/p>\n
Of the deaths that occurred during direct bed sharing, 84.8% involved maternal smoking or vaping. <\/p>\n
The study’s lead author Professor Ed Mitchell said it was “concerning” that vaping “may be showing a similar pattern of risk as smoking, especially when combined with bed sharing”. <\/p>\n
Smoking has long been one of the greatest risk factors for the sudden death of infants, raising questions about pregnancy advice. <\/p>\n
“This raises the possibility that the effects of nicotine itself, rather than how nicotine is delivered, may be contributing to infant vulnerability,” Mitchell said. <\/p>\n
“Our findings suggest we need to consider all nicotine exposure during pregnancy, particularly when it is combined with bed sharing.” <\/p>\n
Researchers stressed that the study did not prove that vaping was a cause of death for infants. <\/p>\n
\u201cUncertainty is not reassurance,\u201d University of Otago professor Barry Taylor, one of the co-authors, said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the possible consequence is an infant death, a precautionary approach is warranted while the evidence develops.\u201d<\/p>\n
Researchers called for public messaging around pregnancy to be changed. <\/p>\n
\u201cVaping has been widely approached as a safer alternative to smoking and a smoking cessation aid, including in pregnancy,” Mitchell said. <\/p>\n
“Our findings suggest we need to consider all nicotine exposure during pregnancy, particularly when it is combined with bed sharing.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement to 1News, Jonathan Devery, chair of the Vaping Industry Association of New Zealand, said the organisation agreed that nicotine use during pregnancy and around newborns “should be strongly discouraged”.<\/p>\n
He said that because the study was a case series with no control group, it could not be established that vaping independently increased the risk of SUDI or demonstrated a causal relationship. <\/p>\n
“Smoking, vaping and infant sleep practices frequently overlap, making it difficult to separate their individual effects.<\/p>\n
“The authors appropriately call for further research to better understand the association between vaping and SUDI.” <\/p>\n
He said that until then, pregnancy should be treated as smoke-, vape-, and nicotine-free. <\/p>\n
The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including why power prices are unlikely to fall, and a bizarre twist in an Australian homicide investigation. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A link between vaping when pregnant and sharing a bed with baby has emerged as a potential risk…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,134,43,8765,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-565938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-health","tag-news","tag-parenting","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}