Maternal smoking during pregnancy: reasons to get involved in prevention
Simon Kayemba-Kay’s
Centre Hospitalier du Valais Romand, Switzerland
: J Womens Health, Issues Care
Abstract
Maternal smoking during pregnancy is a serious health concern with several public health consequences for both the mother and her fetus. Although recent reports suggest a reduction in prevalence, smoking is on the rise among younger adolescents in western countries. The observed shift in smoking trends indicates that women of childbearing age are still exposed despite various measures implemented in several countries to curb this ill-practice. Abundant evidence exists, showing that female smoking affects fertility, interferes with fetal growth, and has known long-term consequences in exposed children namely IUGR, increased risks for SIDS, respiratory tract infection, low rate of maternal breastfeeding and obesity with the consequent metabolic syndrome. To be efficient preventing maternal smoking should be a concern for all health workers. The scarcity of multidisciplinary approaches in efforts to tackle smoking in women of childbearing age will jeopardize our common future and increase the burden on public health expenditures. Working together is one among several solutions to reduce this preventable public health problem.
Biography
Simon Kayemba-Kay’s has completed his MD at University of Grenoble, France in 1990 and in 1998, he did a Clinical Fellowship in Neonatal Medicine at Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College, London. He was trained in Pediatric Endocrinology at Angers and Tours Universities, France from 2000 to 2002 and, in 2004 he did a Senior Clinical Fellowship at Middlesex and Great Ormond Street Hospitals in London. He worked as a Senior Consultant and Honorary Lecturer at Poitiers Univeristy, France for 10 years and he was the Head of Pediatrics, Senior Consultant Pediatric Endocrinologist and Medical Director of Clinical Research Unit URC28 at Victor Jousselin Hospital, Dreux, France. Before joining the Centre Hospitalier du Valais Romand, Sion, Switzerland, he was the Head of Pediatrics Department and Senior Lecturer at Geneva University. He has published more than 50 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of several medical journals.
