Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of preterm births among parous women.

BACKGROUND: We wanted to study a possible association between smoking during pregnancy and preterm birth.

METHODS: A population based prospective study was performed among 7,236 consecutive pregnancies over seven years delivered at one birth clinic. Smoking habits were obtained at a routine ultrasound examination around 18 gestational weeks, and preterm birth was defined as delivery of a child between 24 and 37 gestational weeks. We estimated relative risk (odds ratio) between smoking, possible confounding variables and preterm birth using multiple logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS: Overall, 1,769 (25%) women said that they smoked every day during their pregnancy. The smoking women had an increased risk of preterm delivery compared with non-smokers (odds ratio 1.53, 95% confidence interval 1.24, 1.89). However, this association was only demonstrated among the multiparous women (odds ratio 1.88, 95% confidence interval 1.39, 2.54). The association was statistically significant after adjusting for maternal age, diabetes, cervical conization, preeclampsia, placental abruption and placenta previa in a multivariate analysis, and we observed a dose-response effect of maternal smoking on preterm birth among multiparous women.

CONCLUSION: For multiparous women smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of preterm delivery, and there seems to be a dose-response effect of smoking.