Women should not worry about using their mobile phone during pregnancy as it will not harm the baby’s brain, new research has found.
Fears over radio frequency electromagnetic fields from smartphones for unborn children appear to be unfounded.
A study of 45,389 women and children found those who frequently used their phones while pregnant did not harm their child’s language or motor skills.
In fact, these children were better at communicating aged three or five, perhaps because women who speak more on the phone also talk more to their children, helping them expand their vocabulary.
The findings, led by the Norwegian Institute of Technology, follow concerns after the babies of rats exposed to magnetic radiation from mobile phones were born with changes to their brains.
Fears over radio frequency electromagnetic fields from smartphones for unborn children appear to be unfounded
However the authors say the exposure of unborn babies and rodents cannot be compared.
Co-author Jan Alexander, senior author from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, said: ‘Our large study provides evidence that pregnant women’s use of cellphones is not associated with a risk of harming neurodevelopment of the foetus.
‘The beneficial effects we report should be interpreted with caution due to the limitations common in observational studies, but our findings should at least alleviate any concern mothers have about using their mobile phone while pregnant.’
Women most likely to use their mobile phones while pregnant are younger, more highly educated and have a higher income.
What did they find?
The researchers found almost 90 per cent of pregnant women used the devices, with almost half categorised as medium-frequency users and 4.3 per cent as high users.
The study followed up with these women when their children were three and five years old, to judge the complexity of their sentences, language delays and speech problems.
Children born to mobile phone users had a 27 per cent lower risk of having lower sentence complexity, the results showed.
They were 14 per cent less likely to display incomplete grammar and their chances of being delayed when it came to language were cut by almost a third.
What do the results mean?
Lead author Dr Eleni Papadopoulou, from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, said: ‘The concern for harm to the foetus caused by radio frequency electromagnetic fields, such as those emitted by mobile phones, is mainly driven by reports from experimental animal studies with inconsistent results.
‘Even though this is an observational study, our findings do not support the hypothesis of adverse effects on child’s language, communication and motor skills due to the use of mobile phone during pregnancy.’
The researchers found that children born to mobile phone users had an 18 per cent lower risk of low motor skills at age three, compared to children born to non-users of mobile phones.
The more women used mobile phones, the lower the risk of communication and motor problems appeared to fall.
The study, published in the open access journal BMC Public Health, states: ‘Those women who talk a lot using their cell phones might also talk a lot to their child, explaining the association between heavy phone use and lack of reduced sentence complexity in the children.
‘Hence enhanced maternal-child communication among cell phone users could explain our findings.’
The first time scientists have found a positive impact
Professor Alexander said: ‘Our investigation revealed for the first time that maternal mobile phone use may actually have a positive impact.
‘More specifically, mobile phone use in pregnancy was associated with lower risk of the child having low language and motor skills at three years of age.
‘Although we adjusted for important socio-demographic characteristics as well as maternal personality and psychological factors, we think this protective effect is more likely to be explained by factors not measured in this study having an impact on the mobile phone use and child’s neurodevelopment, rather than the maternal mobile phone use in itself.’