Norwegian women are at the very top of the world when it comes to sniffing. Almost every fifth Norwegian woman snuffs, and by no means all are able to put the snuffbox aside during pregnancy. It can be fatal for the newborn child.
An increase in the risk of stillbirth of over 40 percent is just one of a number of consequences.
– If you can prevent a stillbirth, if you can prevent the newborn from being sent to the intensive care unit in an attempt to resuscitate due to respiratory arrest. If one can prevent it by producing these results, then yes, it is worth the work.
Followed throughout the pregnancy
That’s what doctor and researcher Bendik Brinchmann says. He is one of 14 Norwegian researchers and doctors at the Institute of Public Health, Oslo University of Science, the Cancer Registry and Oslo University Hospital, who over several years have collected large amounts of available information and systematically extracted and linked what is relevant to what they are looking for. The starting point was around 2,500 sources of information.
USE SENSE, NOT SNUFF: Bendik Brinchmann has researched snuff use and pregnancy Photo: Kristin Grønning / TV 2
Bendik Brinchmann currently has a shared position between the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and the Norwegian Working Environment Institute, STAMI.
An important source he uses as an example is Swedish pregnancy control.
– As in Norway, mothers in Sweden also go to a midwife or GP for a pregnancy check. Then you have seen in the first check whether they answer yes or no to whether they sniff. Then you look further at those who answer yes, and continue to sniff through the pregnancy. Then you see that these occurrences are higher in them, Brinchmann explains.
He also emphasizes the importance of recording how the births of women who report having snorted, but managed to stop when they became pregnant, go on.
Increased risk of stillbirths
– This is important, because in this group all the risks are reduced, even to normal.
The result of this extensive work was published in the medical journal Addiction on 16 December 2022, under the name “Use of Swedish tobacco during pregnancy: A systematic review of pregnancy and early life health risk”
The results are alarming. In newborns of mothers who snorted while pregnant, it was found that:
- The children consistently have a lower birth weight
- The incidence of extreme premature birth is 70% higher
- The incidence of respiratory arrest has doubled
- The incidence of cleft lip/palate is almost 50% higher
- The incidence of stillbirth is 43% higher
The effect snus has on the body has been a topic of contention among researchers for many years. However, this study shows that snus has a far more dramatic and harmful effect on the fetus in the mother’s womb than it has on the mother herself.
PREMATURE: Women who snuff during pregnancy have a significantly higher risk of premature birth. Photo: Danny Lawson
– What is known from research on women who smoke is that the level of nicotine in the placenta and in the amniotic sac is higher than in the mother’s blood. So it seems that the nicotine is concentrated in the fetus. It probably does because nicotine is similar to substances that have important functions for us, Brinchmann explains.
Young people sniff more
As more and more people stop smoking, the number of Norwegians who snuff is rising. According to the latest figures from Statistics Norway, 15 per cent of Norwegians between the ages of 17 and 64 state that they snuff. The number has never been higher.
During the last ten years, the proportion of people in the 25 to 34 age group who snuff daily has increased from 12 to 25 per cent. Every sixth woman in this age group is a daily snuffer.
STILL MORE: The number of Norwegians who snuff has never been higher. Photo: Sigve Bremer Mejdal / TV 2
Not everyone is able to put down the snuff box when they become pregnant, but the Norwegian figures on this are uncertain.
Around two thousand every year
– For 2021, we have figures on this from the birth register, and these show that under 5 per cent snuffed before pregnancy, and around 2 per cent of Norwegian births are carried out by mothers who snuff.
This means that 1,200 Norwegian births each year are carried out by sniffing mothers. Then we know from studies that this is heavily underreported, perhaps up to 40 per cent, points out doctor Bendik Brinchmann.
This means that an estimated 2,000 Norwegian children are born to mothers who snuff every year.
At the same time that more and more people, including women, are starting to snuff, new products are coming on the market that contain more nicotine, brands such as “extra strong” and “ultra strong”. These can contain multiplied levels of nicotine compared to the snus many are used to.
Norway and Sweden are the only countries that have exceptions to the general ban on snus in Europe.
