Pregnancy and smoking
Smoking may be pleasurable to many women, but it is very significant to know that smoking is one of the predominant causes for infertility and complications during pregnancy and childbirth in women. It is very necessary to note that smoking can cause adverse consequences to the unborn baby, with babies being born premature, being too small or underweight at birth and babies being born still. It is again significant to note that babies that are of low weight could also develop serious problems like a mental retardation, learning problems, and cerebral palsy. Again smoking is the most leading cause for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) after birth.
The smoke from cigarettes contains more than 4000 harmful chemicals, the most significant and dangerous being cyanide, lead, and about 60 chemicals causing cancer. Again the toxins get into the blood stream of the baby and cause deficiencies of oxygen and other nutrients. Prominent gynecologists and obstetricians are of the opinion that many of the complications can be treated by effective medications and other treatments, provided women gave up smoking to protect their and their babies’ health in the womb.
Firstly smoking affects the fertility of women greatly. It accelerates the rate at which the woman’s eggs become unstable and is also responsible for early menopause in women. It is significant to note that this drop in the years of fertility by about 40% as compared to non-smokers, these women also take longer to conceive. In many cases the way to normally conceive becomes very difficult or sometimes impossible. In addition to difficulty and longer time to conceive, many smoking women are faced with the increased risks of low-weight babies, and increased miscarriages caused by abnormalities in chromosomes.
In addition it is significant to note that men that smoke also face problems in fertility and can become unable or find it difficult to make a woman conceive. Men suffer not just with low sperm count and motility, but could also have difficulty in the movement of sperms and have a damaged and changed DNA. This not only affects the quality of the sperm, but could act as the worst deterrent to conception and pregnancy in ones partner. Next smoking affects not only general health, but smoking 20 cigarettes a day lead to lower concentrations of protamines, an integral part of cell division that ensures correct chromosomal formation during conception.
Smoking and the baby in the womb
You would surely give up smoking when you realize that it could harm your baby in the womb significantly. Smoking causes a shortage of oxygen in the blood and you would surely agree that this shortage would act as a great deterrent to the growth and development of the baby. So it is not rare to find children of smoking mothers being born of very less birth weight, sometimes less than even 5 pounds. It is best to understand that just drinking a pack of cigarettes each day could bring down the weight of the unborn baby by about half a pound, in addition to delivering babies with stunted growth in the womb and complications for a lifetime.
It is still more significant that babies are born premature, with premature delivery leading to even complications as emergency C-sections and babies born still or being subject to sudden infant death syndrome and asthma after birth. Next it is important to note that babies that are undersized and underweight also have under-developed bodies. It is quite possible that the infant’s lungs are not well-developed to take up its function on its own.
This may involve them being kept attached respirators or in an incubator for a few weeks. In addition there is a risk of such newborns having problems in breathing for a very long time, with the added risks of asthma and other respiratory disorders. You would consider it worthwhile not to smoke before and after getting pregnant when you realize that smoking leads to children with impaired brain structure that shows up as learning disorders, relatively low IQ’s and behavioral problems.
Smoking mothers may find the incentive to give up smoking when they discover that smoking during the first trimester of pregnancy would increase the chances of the newborn being born with heart defects several times. You would be shocked to know that if you smoke, you would increase the chance of your baby being born with the risk of certain types of congenital heart defects by about 70% more than mothers that did not smoke. Your motivation as a smoking mother would still increase when you realize that you would be putting your newborn to defects like the obstructed flow of blood from the right side of the heart into the lungs and openings between the upper chambers of the heart.
Ultimately the solution to eliminating the ill-effects of smoking in the newborn lies in the action plan to quit smoking. It is best to quit even before one conceives, for this would help you conceive sooner. Your motivation lies in thinking best for your child and planning to eat a healthy and balanced diet exercise well and prepare yourself positively for the birth of the child coupled with the thoughts of having a healthy well developed child. This is more easily said than done, but is definitely possible with the help of support anon groups that have helped those with the strong motivation to quit smoking.