The Effects of Smoking While You Are Pregnant

Gravity of the effects of smoking

Imagine the plight of the tiny fetus locked in the womb: the only source of fresh air is through the mother's blood supply; and that too loaded with tobacco smoke! This amounts to directly infusing poison into baby's blood - nicotine and more.

It is now proved beyond doubt that smoking at home and in cars, even with open doors and windows, accumulates high levels of potentially hazardous chemicals in the ambient air.

The harmful effects of smoking during pregnancy may even strike after decades

35 years ago Pamela was having a baby. She was all excited, but just 8 weeks before the expected due date, bleeding and pain started. Promptly diagnosis of "placenta previa" was made, which it was not.

It was a panic diagnosis for a dear colleague. Yes, this is a real life story of a doctor couple, where the husband was a heavy smoker.

What got overlooked by medical professionals three decades ago is being ignored by lot of parents even today. Millions of children each year are exposed to cigarette smoke in mother's womb.

Did Pamela's child grow up to be a healthy adult? Nope, certainly not!

25 years later diverse hormonal and psychosocial issues engulfed the well accomplished youth.

Could the youth's health problems be due to secondhand smoke experienced in the fetal life? Could be; or maybe not! That is it: The harmful effects of smoking strike so long after, that the parents find it difficult to correlate.

Pregnancy loss

Today it is confirmed that secondhand smoking is as injurious to health as direct smoking. Pregnant women who continue to smoke, directly or passively, are more likely to experience premature births, spontaneous abortions and even stillbirths.

Hampers growth and development of fetus

Their babies have noticeably low birth weight. Prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke hampers optimal growth and development of the fetus. Their lung development is compromised too. Moreover, these babies are predisposed to pass meconium within the womb which endangers their life.

Birth defects

Pregnancy exposed to tobacco smoke results in increased risk of birth defects in the offspring: Heart defects, neural tube defects, hydrocephalus, small head with corresponding small brain within, short limbs and club foot.

Impairs learning and behavioural development of childhood

The harmful effects of smoking during pregnancy continue to surface throughout life. Children of the parents who continue to smoke through the pregnancy are more inclined to start smoking during the tender years of middle childhood and continue to smoke lifelong.

Prenatal secondhand smoking is associated with antisocial behaviour and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. It has also been proved to impair learning and behavioural development of childhood.

Effects on breastfeeding

Smoking during pregnancy disturbs hormones, often leading to poor initiation of breast milk secretion. Consequently, the infant is weaned off to top feeds prematurely. Both the mother and the infant thus suffer a wide variety of consequences associated with failure of breastfeeding.

A mother who smokes through pregnancy continues to do so even later. As a result baby the gets the supply of nicotine through breast milk as well, which causes colic, sleep disturbances, excessive crying and feeding problems in the infant.

The harmful effects of smoking on the fetus are far too many to ignore. The consequences surface from the early weeks of pregnancy right into adulthood. Parents' awareness on the subject will surely induce them to refrain from smoking much before conception. Indeed, parents do not want to knowingly pay such a high price for a vice.

Hey, I am Ren Chats, an experienced pediatrician. Solving child health related perplexities is my passion. Tobacco Smoking: When Mother Smokes, Baby Also Smokes childhealth-explanation.com/tobacco-smoking.html Growth Stages of Fetus Determine Newborn Baby's Viability childhealth-explanation.com/fetus.html Subscribe for free monthly "Child Health Chat" from any of the above links. Providing quality quit smoking writings, articles and reviews online.