Smoking and Pregnancy- The Risks

Smoking slowly kills the healthy individual and its continuation during pregnancy increases the health risks by many times. When you choose to smoke even during pregnancy, you not only risk your life but also the life of your baby. If your pregnancy is termed high risk and you still smoke then the complications worsen and you thus risk the life of your child. The smoke that you inhale goes directly to the placenta, which is the connection between you and your baby. Toxins like carbon monoxide and nicotine get in the blood and the baby feeds on the mother, it means that when you smoke the baby also smokes. Such toxic substance hampers the proper supply of essential nutrients to the baby.
Smoking can cause low weight of the baby after birth, and fourteen percent premature deliveries. Even if the mother is not smoking herself and some other member in the family smokes the passive smoking or the second hand smoke affects a great deal on the baby’s health. The American Lung Association has shown through their studies that the baby suffers from low birth weight and other defects due to second hand smoke. Your pregnancy thus gives you a great chance of quitting time and you can as well avoid further health risks. The risks for the baby due to the smoking of the mother or second hand smoke do continue after the birth of the baby. The baby is more vulnerable to lung disorders, colds, difficulty in learning, and there are also problems with the natural physical development of the baby.

There are many other risks involved in smoking during pregnancy. When one smokes, the body gets poor supply of oxygen and this can result in pregnancy complications like damage to the brain of the fetus, miscarriages, ectopic pregnancy, and tubal pregnancies. The infant death syndrome is also cited as the direct result of smoking during pregnancy. The habit of smoking is closely related to breast-feeding, it can lower the milk supply, and the harmful toxin nicotine gets in the blood of the mother and in the milk of the mother. The mother’s milk thus adulterated with nicotine causes disorders like diarrhea, cramps, colic, and nausea in the baby. Smoking after the birth is even more dangerous because the babies take in the nicotine directly in their respiratory system. The mother has two choices either to stop smoking or stop the development of the baby.

Although quitting smoking can be very tough for you during pregnancy and so, you must try to quit smoking before the birth of the child. There are many support groups and you can consult your physician for a better way of quitting smoking.