Smoking in pregnancy and childhood asthma

What is it about?

Smoking in pregnancy is the most important preventable cause for asthma in children! Here, the different reasons and mechanisms how smoking in pregnancy can induce asthma are explained. The various time points of injury are also reviewed. Damage to the lung of the unborn child starts very early in pregnancy; Smoking influences lung growth, immune system maturation and as recently shown causes epigenetic changes in the child which have detrimental effects from infancy to adulthood. Furthermore other less appreciated factors which increase asthma risk via maternal smoking in pregnancy are highlighted.

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Why is it important?

This is a comprehensible summary of all known factors and mechanisms which are involved in causing the increase in asthma in children from mothers who smoked during pregnancy. Asthma is still increasing in parts of the world and smoking of mothers may well be the most important reason why this is still happening. Therefore, this paper is equally useful for politicians, health care providers and scientists. Health issues caused by maternal smoking in pregnancy is still an unsolved issue of epidemic magnitude.

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