Not more 'research' to give mums-to-be something to worry about! Scientists are claiming that pregnant women who are exposed to even low levels of air pollution are at an increased risk of delivering low birthweight babies.
The scaremongering report found that pollutants, and in particular fine particulates found in traffic fumes and industrial air pollutants, increased the risk of full term babies being born at a low weight.
The research also found that affected babies had reduced average head circumference size.
The study was drawn from data on 74,000 pregnant women in 12 European countries between 1994 and 2011.
Lead author Dr Marie Pedersen, of the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona, told the Mirror: "Our findings suggest that a substantial proportion of cases of low birthweight at term could be prevented in Europe if urban air pollution, particularly fine particulate matter, was reduced."
The full report is published in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal.