Prenatal Smoking Increases Diabetes Risk in Women

iStock/Thinkstock(DAVIS, Calif.) — Here’s another reason why pregnant women should quit smoking: it can increase the risk of diabetes in their baby girls.

A study out of the University of California, Davis finds a probable association between parental smoking during pregnancy and diabetes, based on a review of 1,800 women ages 44 to 54 who contracted the disease.

Generally, a fetus in the womb is at greater danger of being exposed to tobacco smoke if the mother smokes cigarettes rather than the father.

Because of this, the risk to women developing diabetes as they age remains constant even when their race, birth weight or current body-mass index are taken into consideration.

Lead author Michele La Merrill says the findings bolster evidence of how adult diabetes can be linked to prenatal environmental chemical exposures although further studies are needed to establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship.

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