Pregnancy and Smoking

Smoking can harm your baby. When you smoke, your baby smokes too, and as a result your baby gets less oxygen. Lack of oxygen can cause your baby to grow more slowly and gain less weight in the womb. Smoking during pregnancy has also been linked to preterm labor and other pregnancy complications.

Lung cancer kills more women every year than breast cancer. More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined.

Smoking can affect more than just your lungs. Smoking can increase your risk for heart disease, heart attack, stroke, osteoporosis (thinning or weakening of your bones), and cancers other than lung cancer.

When you smoke you inhale nicotine and carbon monoxide. These poisons get into the placenta, which is the tissue that connects you to your baby and sends oxygen, nutrients, and eliminates wastes. These poisons can keep your baby from getting the proper supply of nutrients and oxygen that he or she needs to grow.

According to American Lung Association, smoking during pregnancy is associated with miscarriages, still births, low-birth weight, premature birth, and infant death. Smoking during pregnancy is estimated to account for 20 to 30 percent of low-birth weight babies, up to 14 percent of preterm deliveries, and about 10 percent of all infant deaths.

Some of the effects of smoking while pregnant may not be apparent at birth, but are seen as the child starts to develop. Smoking during pregnancy may be a cause of sudden infant death syndrome (crib death), a condition in which apparently healthy babies die suddenly while sleeping.   Additionally, maternal smoking during and after pregnancy has been linked to asthma in children.  In addition, the children may have learning difficulties and behavioral problems.

Second hand smoke

Exposure to second hand smoke, also called involuntary smoking, occurs when non-smokers breath in the cigarette smoke from others around them. Second hand smoke is harmful to both pregnant women and infants. Babies exposed to cigarette smoke may experience more colds, lung problems, and ear infections, learning disabilities and physical growth problems.

Smoking while breast feeding

According to the American Lung Association women should not smoke while breast feeding because the chemicals in cigarette smoke can enter the breast milk.  If you smoke, your baby ingests the nicotine in her breast milk.

Support to Help You Quit

Clearly the best advice is, if you are pregnant, do not smoke and do not stay around others while they are smoking.  If you are still smoking, this is an excellent time to quit.

It is important to identify why you want to quit. The best thing is to make a list of your reasons, so you can look at it when you have the urge to smoke. This list can help you resist. Some common reasons for quitting: