Drop in This Birth Defect Parallels Decline in Maternal Smoking
- posted: Oct. 07, 2025
by Jennifer Henderson, Enterprise & Investigative Writer, MedPage Today
"A decline in maternal smoking in the U.S. corresponded with a decline in infants born with gastroschisis, researchers found.
In an examination of more than 25 million live births, maternal smoking fell from about 9.5% in 2017 to about 4% in 2023, and concurrently, the incidence of gastroschisis, a birth defect in which organs are outside the body, dropped from about 2.5 to about 1.5 per 10,000 births, reported Zane Hellmann, MD, MHS, of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut."
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