There is no one today who does not know how bad a habit smoking is. Smoking, which is very harmful even in normal times, can pose a great threat to the health of both mother and baby when used during pregnancy. Cigarettes contain nicotine, tar, lead, carbon monoxide and other toxic substances that spread to all organs in the body and cause damaging effects on the respiratory system, the heart and blood vessels and other systems. A normal human body can tolerate these effects for a certain period of time, but it is much more difficult for the expectant mother and her baby to tolerate them.
What are the harms of smoking during pregnancy?
If the expectant mother smokes, the abnormal effects will soon start to show themselves. This can manifest itself even through the use of a cigarette. The more you smoke, the more harmful the effects will be.
Smoking during pregnancy reduces the blood, oxygen and nutrients the baby needs to grow. Smoking also increases the risk of a baby being born with a low birth weight by about 2 times. In addition, the risk of premature birth is one of the negative effects of smoking. Expectant mothers who smoke during pregnancy The risk of respiratory arrest (apnea) and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is also quite high. Placenta previa, or premature separation of the placenta, is also more common in smokers than in non-smokers .
Even if the mother smoked during pregnancy and the pregnancy was uneventful, this can lead to chronic conditions such as asthma, as well as sudden death syndrome in babies. In addition, these babies have lower school performance than their peers and may also have learning disorders, behavioral disorders and antisocial behaviors.
Considering all these, smoking during pregnancy is very harmful for both mother and baby health. Even if the number of cigarettes smoked decreases , the risk is not reduced to zero unless you quit completely. Therefore, it would be the right thing to do to quit smoking from the moment you decide to conceive and bring your baby into the world in good health.
Remember, when you quit smoking, so does your baby.
Stay in good health…
Sources
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Smoking and women’s health. ACOG Educational Bulletin, number 240, September 1997.
- Ananth, Cande V., et al. Incidence of placental abruption in relation to cigarette smoking and hypertensive disorders during pregnancy: a meta-analysis of observational studies. Obstetrics & Gynecology, volume 93, number 4, April 1999, pages 622-628.
- Drews, Carolyn D., et al. The relationship between idiopathic mental retardation and maternal smoking during pregnancy. Pediatrics, volume 97, April 1996, pages 547-553. Hwang, Shih-Jen, et al. Association study of transforming growth factor alpha Taq1 polymorphism and oral clefts: indication of gene-environment interaction in a population-based sample of infants with birth defects. American Journal of Epidemiology, volume 141, number 7, 1995, pages 629-636.
- Moller, A.M., and Tonnesen, H. Smoking cessation and pregnancy. Ugeskr Laeger, volume 161, number 36, September 6, 1999, pages 4985-4986.
Ness, Roberta B., et al. Cocaine and tobacco use and the risk of spontaneous abortion. The New England Journal of Medicine, volume 340, number 5, February 4, 1999, pages 333-339.
