Overweight pregnant women who smoke increase the risk of heart abnormalities in babies

Pregnant women who are overweight and smoke throughout their pregnancy are increasing the risk of damage to their baby’s heart.

Around eight out of every 1000 babies are born with congenital heart abnormalities.

Those women who smoked and had a BMI of 25 or more increased their risk by 2.5 of having a child with a heart defect compared to women who either did one or the other but not both.

The research published online in Heart, adds to the evidence linking smoking and obesity to miscarriage, stillbirth, stunted growth and premature birth, the authors say.