Smoking link to pelvic pain in pregnancy

Wednesday May 26th, 2010

Researchers have found a significant link between smoking and pregnancy-related pelvic pain.

Pelvic pain during pregnancy can be severe and may affect the woman's daily activities, such as walking, turning over in bed and getting up from a chair. Occasionally the pain persists after birth, and may become chronic.

Little is known about its causes, so Karin Biering of Herning Regional Hospital in Denmark, and her team undertook a study of 2,302 women with pelvic pain and 2,692 comparable unaffected women. Information was gathered twice in pregnancy and twice after childbirth.

Compared with non-smokers, women who smoked during pregnancy had a 20 per cent raised risk of pelvic pain, with a similar risk for women who stopped smoking in early pregnancy.

"Number of cigarettes smoked per day was associated with pelvic pain in a dose-response pattern," report the authors in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

They write: "These findings suggest a possible new risk factor for a common ailment during pregnancy," but the results "are new and need to be replicated". The link could be caused by reduced blood flow to the pelvic girdle joints, they suggest.

Journal editor, Mr Michael Marsh, commented: "This new research adds to the growing body of evidence which shows the negative impact of smoking during pregnancy.

"Previous research has clearly shown the adverse effects of maternal smoking on foetal development, but this work suggests that it can also lead to physical pain for the mother during pregnancy.

"This study adds further weight to the advice to all pregnant women - give up smoking."

Biering, K. et al. Smoking and pregnancy-related pelvic pain. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, published online May 26, 2010.

Tags: Childbirth and Pregnancy | Drug and Alcohol Abuse | Europe | Women’s Health & Gynaecology

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