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Smoking And How It Can Affect Your Pregnancy

Pregnancy can be scary and difficult, especially for first-time moms. It’s a time in every woman’s life where she’s viewing her body completely differently and is suddenly worrying about things she may never have thought of in the past.

If you’re a smoker and are pregnant or considering getting pregnant, it’s time you started thinking about quitting your smoking habit. If you’re not pregnant yet, quitting smoking can be very beneficial to you in getting pregnant. It’s important to ensure the health and safety of your little one and this is an excellent start.

Smoking during pregnancy is dangerous for both you and your baby

Pregnant Woman Smoking Did you know that there are over 4,000 different chemicals and toxins that come with cigarettes, not to mention the 60 (and counting) cancers and diseases related tobacco cigarettes.

Your baby’s only source of oxygen and nutrients is your bloodstream and when you smoke a cigarette, these toxins enter your bloodstream and go straight into your baby.

There are many smoking-related complications which can occur during pregnancy. Nicotine and carbon monoxide are extremely harmful to your child. Some complications which a mother-to-be might expect are having a stillborn baby, premature delivery and a low birth weight. These things can happen because nicotine and carbon monoxide reduce your baby’s supply of oxygen. A description of what it might be like for your unborn baby when you smoke can be described as attempting to breathe through a narrow or pinched straw. This thought alone gives me the chills.
Eventually, the red blood cells which carry oxygen begin to pick up molecules of carbon monoxide, and the “narrow straw” your baby is attempting to breathe through can’t even hold enough oxygen.

Smoking more than doubles the risk of stillbirth. Even mothers with a lighter smoking habit are still putting their baby at great risk. The body is most sensitive when the first doses of nicotine enter the system, meaning your blood vessels will still tighten up significantly, which can have a very negative effect on your baby.

In addition to your baby’s weight and size being affected, his or her lungs can be affected. Having an underdeveloped body means everything is underdeveloped. In some severe cases, underweight newborns must spend the first few days or even weeks of their life hooked up to a respirator. Even if a baby is able to breathe on its own, the child can still have significant breathing problems throughout his or her life.

Brain function is also among the affected when a mother smokes while pregnant. Many children of smokers often times have learning disabilities, behavioral problems and relatively low IQ’s. More recent studies have proven that nicotine in the womb can pre-program the baby’s brain for future nicotine addiction, which means just a few cigarettes can easily hook the child by the time they become an active teen.