Japan’s Children and Families Agency will examine ways to have more pregnant women under difficult conditions, such as abuse and poverty, benefit from the agency’s program to provide them with a safe childbirth environment. Assistance seekers include youngsters who ran away from home due to bad relations with their parents, or other guardians, and those fleeing their partners’ violence, agency officials said.
Exposure to secondhand smoke during pregnancy increases by about 2.3 times the risk of placental abruption, a condition in which part of the placenta separates from the uterine wall before childbirth, according to a study conducted by a team from Japan’s Tohoku University. It found that pregnant women exposed to secondhand smoke for four to seven days a week and at least an hour a day had 2.34 times the risk of suffering placental abruption compared with those who were not. The risk was 2.21 times higher among pregnant women who smoked at least 11 cigarettes per day compared with nonsmokers.
Barrier Free Japan