Maternal and fetal prolactin levels in relation to maternal smoking during pregnancy

ABSTRACT

In this study, the maternal and serum cord prolactin and nicotine metabolite levels were measured at birth using the IMMULITE immunoassay method in 40 apparently healthy mother-neonate pairs. In 20 of them, the mothers were smokers during pregnancy and the remaining 20 were nonsmokers and not exposed to passive smoking from a household smoker and with no chronic disease prior to pregnancy, drug- induced pregnancy, ingestion of drugs known to alter prolactin secretion, twin gestations, prematurity, malformations, complications during pregnancy or labor. The findings indicated that maternal smoking during pregnancy lower the serum prolactin level in mothers at delivery with the expected short period of breast feeding, which makes their infants susceptible to the drawbacks of artificial feeding, in addition to the disturbance of the endocrine status of the fetus as shown by the lower fetal prolactin level