Harmful Effects of Smoking During Pregnancy

Smoking is a major public health issue and all smokers face an increased risk of lung cancer, cardiovascular and other disorders. Harmful Effects of smoking during pregnancy has been given a lot of publicity and although it has help women to quit when they are pregnant, they are those that continue to smoke despite all the warnings.

Spare a thought for the Innocent and Unborn!

For mothers and mothers-to-be who have not quit the habit yet, you need to know that there are some risks associated with your behavior that could pass down to your baby and unborn child. Babies of smoking mothers do have a higher risk for serious complications and illness and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is also more common in babies whose mothers smoked during pregnancy.

It is not uncommon for smokers to cut down on the number of cigarettes they smoke during pregnancy, but reducing it doesn’t necessarily reduce the amount of nicotine, tar, and other poisons inhaled.
For many, reducing the number of cigarettes usually leads to an increase in depth of inhalation and number of puffs, in order to achieve the same desired effect as smoking the usual amount.

A general rule of thumb for pregnancy is; if you eat it, drink it, or breathe it, so does your unborn child. All nutrients, drugs, and chemicals in a pregnant woman’s bloodstream are transferred to the baby through the placenta and umbilical cord. So can you imagine the harmful effects of smoking during your pregnancy that you are bringing to your unborn child?
The toxins from your cigarette smoke will be passed directly to your unborn child.
 
Your continuous smoking during pregnancy can have adverse health effect on our growing unborn baby. Babies born to smoking mothers usually have a lower birth weight than those born to non-smoking mothers.
 
Smoking mothers also have a higher rate of miscarriage compared to non-smokers and more likely to deliver their babies prematurely.
Premature babies are typically quite small with low birth weight, may have underdeveloped lungs and brains.

The birth weight of a baby is important to the future of your baby.
Low birth weight babies have a higher mortality, death-rate at birth and in the first 6 months.
These babies are also at higher risk for serious complications and illness and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is also more common in babies whose mothers smoked during pregnancy.

The harmful effects of smoking during has also been linked to long-term health consequences that the child must manage throughout his life, such as asthma or congenital heart defects.

Other pregnancy complications that have been linked to smoking include infections of the uterus, placental complications and premature rupture of the membranes
 
The number of women who smoke has been falling steadily recent years. No one can deny that quitting smoking it is a difficult process. However, many women have give up smoking during early stages of their pregnancy have managed to stayed off after that. They are the ones that usually give up smoking during their early stages of pregnancy and those that received encouragement from their partners and midwives.

You can see for yourself what are the harmful effects of Smoking during pregnancy here.
The risks outweigh the benefits and as a parent, you have the responsibility of bringing your child into and up in this world.