Smoking during Pregnancy




If there exist more or less suitable times to quit smoking, there is probably no better time to do so than when people plan to have a baby. A healthy baby is guaranteed to be born to a healthy mother, but it is rare for those who have some kind of bad habits. It is proven that smoking influences a baby a lot: starting from mother’s ability to conceive and carry a baby for the full nine-month period and ending with high risks of SIDS and asthma.

It is good to know that smoking rates among Americans are going down, but it seems that men are more concerned about their health than women, because they stay away from cigarettes more often. The statistics shows, high school girls have high smoking rates and their numbers go down very slowly.

It is best to quit smoking when a woman just plans to have a baby, but even after she found out that she is pregnant, it is not too late to quit. In the modern time there are fewer smoking pregnant women than there used to be 20-30 years ago, but studies show that there are still around 10% women in the U.S. who keep smoking while carrying a baby. In the majority these are Native Americans and teenage girls of all races.

While there are no positive aspects of smoking there are a great number of drawbacks connected to it. First of all, it affects women’s fertility. Studies show that smokers have fewer chances to conceive a baby than non-smokers. However, if a woman quits, her fertility comes back to normal after a short period of time and t is easier to become pregnant.

There are several complications connected to smoking while expecting. The journal Obstetrics and Gynecology has published a study that proved pregnant women who stopped smoking in the first trimester had similar low-rate risk of delivering preterm or small infants as women who never smoked. Pre-term delivery and babies with low birth-weight are the most common side-effects of smoking during pregnancy. The main reason for early born babies is because smoking leads to premature (before 37 weeks) rupture of membranes or the sac with the baby.

Smoking also causes placental problems: placenta previa is a name for a case when placenta is too low and it blocks the opening in the uterus; placenta abruption is the time when placenta is not attached well enough and peels off before the delivery. While it might sound not dangerous for ordinary people, the professionals know that both of these cases result in excessive bleeding during delivery and might endanger both the mother and the baby. These placental problems also might lead to premature birth, fetal distress and/or fetal death.

It is a well-known fact that nicotine goes through placenta and affects baby’s health as much as mother’s. It hardens the walls of the arteries and influences blood flow which negatively affects fetus’ development and growth. The amount of oxygen in blood is low because it is mostly replaced with the chemicals from tobacco smoke. This, in its turn, reduces the number of nutrients that the baby could possibly receive.

Even if the baby is born without problems and survives the first days, the mother should still stay away from smoking and keep both herself and her baby away from tobacco smoke. Babies have very small lungs and exposure to smoke-filled air makes the airways even smaller. They start having difficulties with breathing which leads to such lung problems as bronchitis, pneumonia and various types of cold. The babies who inhale smoke also might have ear infections, respiratory symptoms and slow lung growth.

Many new studies show close connection of mother’s smoking and SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). The reason is because babies who inhale tobacco smoke regularly are used to low amounts of oxygen in the air, so when they do not receive enough oxygen during sleep it does not bother them as it should and they do not wake up or turn around to receive more air which results in suffocation.

Every woman should be very concerned about her coming baby and quit smoking as soon as she can to restore her own health and provide healthy development for her baby.

Nicole Turner

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Posted on October 27, 2009 
Filed Under Facts on Smoking, Smoking and Health, Smoking and Women

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