According to reports, a study has revealed that smoking by pregnant women increases the risk of having deformed babies as the risk is said to be 26% higher in women who smoked during pregnancy.

Also, 50% more of them had the tendency to give birth to babies with gastroschisis, which is a condition that makes parts of the stomach or intestines to swell through their skin.

In the study, 174,000 cases of malformation were examined, and it was discovered that in most of the cases, smoking increased the risk of defects in babies by more than 25%, and babies whose mothers smoked during pregnancy were discovered to have 28% more tendency to be born with ‘clubfoot, a cleft lip or palate’, while the chance of getting skull defects was increased by 33%, along with eye defects by 25%.

Lead author Professor Allan Hackshaw, from University College London, stated that "People may think that few women still smoke when pregnant. But the reality is that, particularly in women under 20, the numbers are still staggeringly high”.

Moreover, irrespective of health warnings regarding the dangers inherent in smoking while pregnant, 17% of pregnant women and 45% of those under 20 in the UK are reported to still continue with the habit.