July 12th, 2011 10:15 AM ET Editor's note: This story was
originally published by CNN's partner, Parenting.com. If all the
research about the links between smoking and health problems
like lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke, as well as the
associations between smoking and its impact on infertility, pre-
term delivery, stillbirth, low birth weight and SIDS haven’t
been enough to convince you to kick the habit, maybe this will.
A new review of dozens of past scientific studies has
definitively linked smoking with certain serious birth defects
including heart defects, missing or deformed limbs,
gastrointestinal disorders and facial disorders. The study,
“Maternal smoking in pregnancy and birth defects,” was published
online in the journal Human Reproduction Update from the
European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, and is
the first-ever comprehensive systematic review conducted to
examine which specific birth defects are associated with
smoking. The research team reviewed observational studies pub