Facts about Smoking and Pregnancy
Secondhand smoke is a highly toxic substance that combines the smoke coming from the lit cigarette and the smoke exhaled by the person smoking the cigarette. It contains around fifty known cancer causing agents which can cause the non-smoker to develop all of the same diseases as the chronic or habitual smoker. This means that a parent who smokes in the home is exposing their family to the same health risks as themselves, and even a few additional ones.
What about the effects of smoking on someone who isn’t born yet? Do they too suffer some sort of health issues if their mother is a smoker or someone exposed to secondhand smoke? Yes, there are all kinds of links to problems in the health of young children and their exposure to smoking.
For example, women who are smokers and who continue to smoke throughout a pregnancy are much more likely to miscarry than a non-smoker, and when a baby is carried for the full term it is usually going to be born at a low birth weight. Statistics indicate that the babies born to smokers average at only five and half pounds and account for roughly thirty percent of all low birth weight babies.
A pregnant smoker is also delivering all of the same toxins contained in their cigarettes directly into the baby as well. It is important to understand that smoking delivers nicotine and carbon monoxide into the blood stream and this is then transferred through the placenta and into the unborn baby. This means that a baby is not getting enough oxygen and nutrients during the most critical time of development, and this leads to serious problems long after they are born.
Pregnant smokers are among the most common to have preterm deliveries of underweight babies, and their children tend go on into life with a tendency towards lung problems, learning disabilities, and frequent issues with colds, coughs and ear infections.
Finally, one of the most startling and terrifying connections between pregnancy and smoking is that children born to smokers are more likely to perish from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) than children of non-smokers. Though the issue is one surrounded by mystery, there have been solid links established between newborns and infants whose mothers were smokers and subsequent SIDS deaths.
Pregnancy should be a time when a woman and her partner strive for optimal health in order to ensure that their baby is also incredibly health too. The best choice to make during such a time is to eliminate all of the dangers presented by smoking, and to remain a non-smoker after the child is born as well.
