Doctors are so accustomed to hearing about bad effects of smoking that the report by four U.S. Navy physicians came as something of a shock.
After a study of 48,505 pregnant wives, half of whom were smokers, Lieut. Commander Paul B. Underwood and his colleagues told the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, their collected data provide no proof that smoking by a mother harms her unborn child, and in one way it appears to help.
It is true enough, said Dr. Underwood, that mothers' smoking at any stage of pregnancy resulted in the birth of smaller-than-average babies. But...
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