It is an undeniable fact that smoking is dangerous to the human body. Smoking, as well as passive smoking is very dangerous to the individual and to anyone who spend time near and with the smoker. While smoking in itself is quite dangerous, smoking is almost fatal and severely affects women while pregnancy.
Here are some effects of smoking on pregnancy as well as some unhealthy relations between smoking and pregnancy (i.e. smoking health dangers).
Smoking cigarettes while pregnant
Fertility of the smoking woman
Not only does smoking have an effect on the pregnancy, it also has a close relation with the fertility of the woman. If a woman smokes, her fertility decreases and they have more problems than non smoking women to conceive. The various studies show that their fertility returns to normalcy when they quit smoking.
Smoking and Pregnancy Complications
1. Some of the common incidents are the fertilized eggs implant outside the womb. In addition, there are some other situations like abnormal placental implantation, premature placental detachment, vaginal bleeding, premature delivery and sudden infant death.
2. In extreme cases, smoking is also said to cause miscarriages in women.
3. Smoking during pregnancy causes Placenta Previa, which may complicate pregnancies. This can cause heavy bleeding during the pregnancy. This bleeding can complicate the pregnancy as well as the birth and growth of the newborn.
The newborn/unborn child: Health dangers of smoking while pregnant
While these are just the problems that may be faced by the would-be mother, there are several problems that may mar the unborn child’s growth and life, even in the long run.
In fact, smoking is dangerous to the unborn child even if the mother does not smoke but has someone who smokes in the house.
There are several others unsubstantiated by highly possible results that smoking may have on the child:
1. Smoking while pregnant affects the body and internal organs of the unborn child. These organs are not formed properly and they may face a major problem to be developed.
2. One relation between smoking and pregnancy is that women who smoke during pregnancy give birth to children who weigh lesser as compared to women who do not smoke.
3. The unborn child may have problems in mental behavior and development.
4. Women who smoke incessantly during their pregnancy face a greater risk of their children being born with a cleft or a palate.
5. Smoking may also cause the child to be born with hyperactivity or a lesser attention span.
6. The smoking women who do not quit before the fifteenth week have a three times more chances of giving birth to children weighing less as compared to non smoking women who give birth.
7. Another effect of smoking while pregnant is stillbirth and other placental malformations.
8. Smoking women who give birth normally give birth to children who do not have proper reading abilities.
9. Incessant smoking is also known to cause the sudden death or crib death syndrome in children.
10. Women who smoke are also known to breast feed their babies less. This causes the baby to lose on one of the most important ingredient for their growth and proper development.
11. The smoking pregnant woman is also said to increase the chances of the child to have cancer. These children are five times more probable than the children of non smoking mothers to have any kind of child cancers.
12. Babies who are routinely exposed to second hand smoke from their mothers or anyone else are known to be underweight and also a reduced birth-weight. Their growth may also be reduced.
The above facts on smoking and pregnancy show that women who smoke while pregnant pose not only a risk to themselves but also the unborn child is critically affected.
Smoking women who conceive are also known to exhibit withdrawal symptoms that are quite similar to the withdrawal symptoms shown by women who undertake illicit drugs.
These are just some of the smoking dangers while pregnant and the relations between smoking and pregnancy. There are several other health dangers that the smoking mother experiences in a pregnancy. Therefore, in the case of a pregnancy, it is best to quit smoking -
Quitting smoking while pregnant
It is also a proved fact that if a woman quits smoking before the fifteenth week of pregnancy, it will be beneficial on the unborn child.
With the decrease of smoking during pregnancy, around eleven percent of stillborn deaths and five percent of newborn deaths can be stopped.
