Smoking and Pregnancy

Smoking and pregnancy is a combination that absolutely should not exist! I’m sure you know that smoking is bad for you. If you’re pregnant, or even if you are raising children, you might not realize how bad your smoking is for your unborn baby or your children. Let’s take a look at the problems smoking causes for babies.

Smoking During Pregnancy

Smoking and pregnancy increases…

• Your risk of a stillbirth
• Risks of newborn deaths
• Chances of having a low-birth weight baby
• Chances of having a premature baby
• Chances of your newborn having cerebral palsy or mental retardation

That’s not all!

Smoking doubles a woman’s risk of having problems with her placenta (the lining of the uterus which provides nourishment to the fetus and also eliminates waste products).

Smoking increases your chances of having a premature rupture of the sac that holds the baby--which results in a premature birth.

If you smoke during pregnancy, your child is more likely to be a slow learner in school, have behavioral problems, and grow up to be smoker, too.

Also, your baby is three times more likely to die of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), if you smoked during pregnancy.

That’s bad, but what about after your baby is born? How bad is your smoking for your child?

Very bad!

Smoking After Delivery

A study done in 2003 suggests that babies born to nicotine addicted mothers go through withdrawal symptoms much like babies born to mothers addicted to illicit drugs.

Babies have very small lungs and air passages. When they breathe smoked-filled air, those air passages narrow, making it hard for the child to get enough oxygen.

Children exposed to secondhand smoke are much more likely to have respiratory illnesses like bronchitis or pneumonia. They are also more likely to develop asthma.

It doesn’t have to be the mother’s smoke the child is exposed to. It could be a spouse’s smoke, or a grandparent’s smoke.

As far as breastfeeding is concerned, I’ve written a separate article about this. If you smoke and breastfeed, however, your child is getting the nicotine through you. Nicotine is a poison.

What Should You Do?

Quit!

I hate to be that blunt about it, but that’s what you have to do.

You need to quit for your own health, but sometimes our own welfare is not enough to make us do what we know we need to do.

If you are thinking about getting pregnant, then you need to quit before you get pregnant. (Studies have linked infertility to smoking. So, it might even be easier to get pregnant, if you don’t smoke.)

If you are pregnant, then quit now. Sometimes the easiest time to quit is in the first trimester. Often women feel bad, get nauseated, etc, during the first weeks of pregnancy. That’s a great time to quit smoking. The cigarettes probably don’t taste that great anyway.

If you’ve already had your child, then…right, you guessed it!…quit! There’s too much at risk. If your spouse smokes, get him or her to quit. Not only will you save your children from ingesting toxins from second hand cigarette smoke, but you will provide them with a great example to follow. If you quit, your children will be much less likely to start smoking. And, I’m sure you don’t want that!

The bottom line is smoking and pregnancy just don't mix. If you're thinking about getting pregnant, are pregnant, or if you've already had your baby, then you must quit.

If you can't quit for yourself, then please quit for your child! Take a look around this site for more information about quitting.

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