Is using mobile phones harmful during pregnancy? Here's why you should stop freaking out

We tend to take extra precautions during pregnancy. Eating the right kind of food, following a routine exercise, avoiding stress and regular doctor check-ups become a part of expecting mothers' lives over the course of pregnancy.

Inquisitive mums-to-be often research on things to avoid during pregnancy, and if you came across the harmful effects of using mobile phone during pregnancy, you need to read this.

Dr Eleni Papadopoulou, lead author from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, conducted an observational study, involving over 45,000 mother-child pairs and collected data from them while they used mobile phones during pregnancy.

Many mothers will be relieved to know that the findings of the study did not show any bad effects of the use of mobile phones during pregnancy. More specifically, the research debunked any relation between the use of mobile phones during pregnancy and adverse effect on the child's language or motor skills.

In fact, the research found that these children were better at communicating when aged three or five. The likely reason behind this is that women who speak more on the phone tend to talk more to their children, hence expanding their vocabulary.

As per the study, children of mobile phone users as opposed to mothers who reported no mobile phone use had a 31 percent lower risk of having moderate language delay, 27 percent lower risk of having lower sentence complexity and 14 percent lower risk of incomplete grammar at age three.

The latest findings follow serious concerns that had placed pregnant women on high alert after babies of rats exposed to magnetic radiation from mobile phones were born with changes to their brains. Dr Papadopoulou said mobile phone exposure to unborn babies and rodents cannot be compared.

But the study's co-author Jan Alexander, senior author from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, advised caution even though there was no link found between mobile phone use during pregnancy and adverse health effects to the unborn child.

"Our large study provides evidence that pregnant women's use of cell phone is not associated with 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," Alexander explained.