Vaping during pregnancy is a safe approach to stopping smoking and preferred by women attending cessation services, say UK researchers.
Data from 1,100 pregnant smokers at 23 hospitals in England and a smoking cessation service in Scotland found use of electronic-cigarettes was more common than nicotine replacement therapy with around 47% opting for vaping compared with 21% for NRT.
Researchers measured nicotine levels in saliva samples at the start and end of the study and also looked at birth weight and other health information.
The study found that regular use of both e-cigarettes or nicotine patches was not associated with any adverse outcomes.
Birth weights of babies born to pregnant women who had stopped smoking and were using either nicotine product were higher than in smokers.
While users of vapes and NRT did not differ in any safety outcomes looked at for mothers or babies the researchers did note they did note that the study was only looking at the later stages of pregnancy and all the women were smoking during the first trimester.
Writing in the Addiction Journal, the team said the findings could ‘alleviate some concerns’ about use of nicotine-containing products to help pregnant smokers quit, but further studies were needed.
Lead researcher, Professor Peter Hajek from the QMUL Wolfson Institute of Population Health, said: ‘The trial contributes answers to two important questions, one practical and one concerning our understanding of risks of smoking.
‘E-cigarettes helped pregnant smokers quit without posing any detectable risks to pregnancy compared with stopping smoking without further nicotine use. Using nicotine containing aids to stop smoking in pregnancy thus appears safe.
‘The harms to pregnancy from smoking, in late pregnancy at least, seem to be due to other chemicals in tobacco smoke rather than nicotine.’
Commenting on the study, Professor Jamie Brown, director of the Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group at University College London, said: ‘Smoking in pregnancy is dangerous, and many people want to quit and reduce these risks.
‘E-cigarettes are an effective way for people to quit smoking and these new findings may ease some worries of pregnant smokers who want to use them to quit smoking.’
Last year a Cochrane review of the evidence found that nicotine vaping was the most effective option among the available smoking cessation aids.
But the analysis of more than 300 randomised controlled trials found combination NRT was almost as good.
The Government has announced plans to phase out smoking at the same time as helping more people to quit including through swapping to vapes.
At the same time measures have also been proposed to reduce the availability and appeal of vapes to children and teenagers.
