ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Perinatal complications associated with maternal smoking and alcohol ingestion in pregnancy have been well documented. But until now there has been no clinical data on it collected in our country. In this paper, we tried to research the association between maternal smoking and alcohol ingestion in pregnancy and the physical indices of the neonate at delivery among unmaried mothers from one charitable institution. METHODS: We enlisted 125 unmarried with a history of smoking and alcohol consumption during pregnancy who delivered a baby in National Medical Center from March, 2001 to March, 2004 as a study group. As a control, 174 unmarried mothers without a history of smoking and alcohol were enlisted. Then, we compared the physical indices - birth weight, height, and the head circumference - of the neonates from both groups. Furthermore, we investigated the effects of the period and the quantity of maternal smoking and alcohol ingestion on the physical indices of the neonates from the both groups. RESULTS: Low physical indices of neonates were found in the study group(either smoking group, or drinking group) compared with the control group. The quantity of smoking or drinking and the period of smoking or drinking have no significant effect on physical indices. CONCLUSION: We found that maternal smoking and alcohol result in the low physical index of neonates, and educational initiatives must be directed at expectant mothers to emphasize the harmful effects of smoking and alcohol ingestion in pregnancy.