The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa
Post Reporter
BABY Mufaro (not real name) was diagnosed with multiple respiratory problems, including bronchitis, and had breathing problems since birth two years ago.
He also has a cleft palate.
Thanks to a free surgery done at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals in Harare last year, Mufaro’s lip was fixed.
Mufaro’s mother, Ms Letty Ncube (23), said her former job as a shebeen waitress exposed her to passive smoking and other harmful substances.
She said doctors told her that this was the cause of her child’s conditions.
Passive smoking is the involuntary inhaling of smoke from other people’s cigarettes, cigars or pipes.
“When I was pregnant, I worked at a shebeen in Sakubva where I would passively smoke on a daily basis because most of the clients were smokers.
“They smoked all sorts of cigarettes and twists of marijuana (mbanje). I almost miscarried on countless occasions. I only stopped going to work after one of my near miscarriage experiences. The doctor told me that the nature of my job was putting my unborn baby at risk. She said both myself and my unborn baby were passively smoking and the baby’s life was in danger,” said Ms Ncube.
True to the doctor’s words, the passive smoking saw the baby being born with respiratory problems.
At two years old, Baby Mufaro still has the respiratory problems and needs regular hospital visits.
His mother is optimistic about his future and tries to protect him from second-hand smoke, which is the main cause of his condition.
She said she wants to give him a healthy and happy life and will continue visiting the doctor with him to save his life.
However, Ms Ncube’s close friend, Ms Precious Masukume, said her colleague smoked regularly during her pregnancy, but wants to keep it as a closely guarded secret.
Ms Masukume said her friend was an active smoker despite the health risks for her and her baby.
“She only stopped smoking when she heard that the baby would die. Sometimes she had clients who forced her to smoke with them. They would take other dangerous drugs. Since she wanted the money, she would join the clients in abusing drugs and other substances during her pregnancy,” said Ms Masukume.
According to the World Data Atlas, Zimbabwe’s smoking prevalence statistics among adult women was 1.5 percent in 2020.The smoking prevalence among adult men was 21.8 percent.
Speaking during a Harm Reduction Exchange Conference held in Nairobi, Kenya last week, paediatrician, epidemiologist and researcher, Dr Michael Kariuki highlighted the effects of smoking, both passively and actively, on pregnant mothers and their unborn babies.
He said women who smoke or are exposed to smoke during pregnancy have a higher risk of miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth.
“Chemicals that are found in tobacco smoke include nicotine and its derivatives, tar, carbon monoxide, oxidizing chemicals, metals, radioactive compounds as well as tobacco specific nitrosamines. While they are bad for the active smoker, they also affect the passive smoker, including her unborn baby.
“Such babies end up suffering from weaker lungs, low birth weight which is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes in adulthood, an increased risk of cleft palate and cleft lip, as well as risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),” he said.
Dr Kariuki said the babies also experience an increased risk of ear infections, respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia and bronchitis, sudden unexpected death in infancy and meningococcal disease.
“Tobacco smoke exposure increases asthma prevalence and severity and the effects of tobacco smoke exposure start in the uterus. To top it all, there will also be an increased risk of miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth as well as weaker lungs when an unborn baby is exposed to tobacco smoke and other dangerous drugs and substances,” he said.
The medical practitioner also said while many women who smoke daily continue to smoke during pregnancy, there is need for African governments, including Zimbabwe, to intervene in training health care workers on how to prescribe cessation aids to pregnant women.
Pregnant women usually smoke because of being in continued smoking social networks, lack of access to quit-smoking services, emotional stress, pregnancy-related depression as well as increased metabolism of nicotine during pregnancy.
Dr Kariuki said there are potential tobacco harm reduction strategies for passive pregnant smokers that include reducing exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.
He said a family-centred or community-centred smoking cessation intervention could be considered to reduce the effects of environmental tobacco smoke.
“Environmental tobacco smoke from smoking among family and social contacts may directly affect the health of a pregnant woman and her foetus through smoke inhalation and indirectly by making it difficult for a pregnant woman to quit or remain abstinent if she is a smoker,” he said.
“For active pregnant smokers who are failing to quit, there is need to obtain the nicotine they crave from a reduced-harm product. This could be an e-cigarette,” said Dr Kariuki.
He said smoking addicts can also supplement their addiction with antioxidants like Vitamin C and E, which are often depleted in smokers.
In an interview, Integra Africa principal and medical practitioner, Dr Tendai Mhizha emphasized on the need to raise awareness for tobacco harm reduction as a public health strategy so that adult smokers, especially pregnant smokers who are unable to or are not interested in quitting tobacco altogether will be encouraged to migrate to non-combustible product alternatives.
“Raising awareness to tobacco harm reduction has the potential to bring about one of the greatest public health achievements of our time. There is need to ensure that stakeholders are well-informed with current and relevant information about the science, the changes that occur and how we can advance towards a smoke-free world,” Dr Mhizha said.
She said this will help bring to light the dangers of active and passive smoking, not only to pregnant smokers, but every other tobacco smoker across the African continent.
