Smoking and gay children
Expectant mothers already know that smoking while pregnant is bad for the fetus, but now a scientist is claiming the baby of a mother who smokes has a greater chance of being gay or bisexual.
This controversial claim is being made by Dick Swaab, a 69-year-old British neurobiology professor. Swaab believes that being gay or straight is decided in the womb. In his book, We Are Our Brain, he suggests that smoking and man-made hormones increase the chances of a girl being bisexual or lesbian. Past studies of women taking estrogen to prevent miscarriage did have a greater chance of their daughters being lesbian or bisexual. He states that brain development for the fetus can be altered by chemical changes from smoking and other negative choices such as drinking alcohol or drug usage. In addition, Swaab goes on to claim that a woman who gives birth to multiple sons increases the chances that future sons will be gay.
“This is due to a mother’s immune response to male substances produced by boy babies in the womb, a response that becomes stronger with each pregnancy.”
Swaab’s claims in his book, however, cannot be conclusively proven. The best thing that one should take away from his conclusions is that pregnant moms should not smoke to improve not only the mother’s health but also the baby’s.
