Before starting, the answer is "no." The headline of this news originally has drawn my attention, because it actually said "Nicotine gum has benefits in pregnant smokers," but this must be well qualified.
According to a study published in the journal "Obstetrics and Gynecology", nicotine gum would have benefits in pregnant smokers, although we must remember that it is still harmful to provide nicotine to our body And what is really beneficial for the future mom and baby is not smoking.
Nicotine gum would not help pregnant women quit smoking, and what they would do would be to reduce the amount of cigarettes they consume per day, which at the same time would reduce the risk of having a premature or low birth weight baby. But the harm of tobacco is still there, so the patches are not a solution, and we already saw how they could even cause congenital malformations in the baby.
In the study, conducted in the United States, researchers observed 194 pregnant smokers who used a nicotine gum or placebo gum for 6 weeks, and who also received individual advice to quit smoking.
Dropout rates were not significantly different between the two groups, according to the team led by Cheryl Oncken of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in Farmington.
The use of nicotine gum decreased to 5.7 the amount of cigarettes consumed per day and placebo chewing gum had less effect, 3.5 cigarettes per day. Although what surprises me most is that the babies of women who chewed nicotine gum instead of placebo gum weighed significantly more at birth and were born almost at term.
Despite these results, it is always recommended that pregnant smokers do not use chewing gum on a regular basis because, in addition to the risks outlined above, there is evidence in animals that exposure to nicotine produces cellular abnormalities that would raise the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.
So do not forget that neither the use of nicotine gum or other replacement products, like smoking, is harmful to pregnant women.
