Controversies Of Smoking While Pregnant

Pregnancy is a joyful time for most families because that means the mother is bringing a new member into the world who will be welcomed into the family. A mother holding her newborn healthy baby in her arms for the first time makes her feel a sense of pride. This is because she has followed all of her doctor’s instructions and listened to his advice on how to keep herself healthy, and how to deliver a healthy baby after her nine months are up. But what if the new mom to be did not listen to the doctor’s advice? What if she decided to smoke during her pregnancy because she assumed it would not hurt the baby? What health problems or birth defects would the baby be challenged with when it was born? Women who smoke during their pregnancies on

Smoking during the first trimester of pregnancy could lead to the placenta not developing fully. As the placenta carries oxygen and blood to the foetus this may impair growth and link to low birth weights. Babies born to smoking mothers are 30% more likely to have a premature baby which could lead to respiratory distress, problems feeding and they could have difficulty regulating their body temperature. Babies undergo withdrawal like systems and tend to be more jittery and harder to settle. Babies being brought up in a smoking household are at increased risk of cot death and may go on to develop asthma during childhood.

For our other target audience of pregnant women, we dedicated two slides to smoking during pregnancy and the repercussions of smoking around their new young baby. We gave them information such as a low birth weight, smaller organs, likelihood of cot death and an increased risk of miscarriage. After they have had their baby, we gave them other information. This information included things such as meningitis, hearing loss, cot death, asthma and breathing problems. As well as this, we also wanted to emphasise the mothers health and how it would effect them.

It is not safe to smoke when you are breastfeeding. Smoking during breastfeeding is harmful to you and to your baby in many ways. When you smoke during breastfeeding, nicotine and other harmful (toxic) substances pass through your milk to your baby. When you smoke, your baby is also exposed to cigarette smoke (secondhand smoke) and to surfaces contaminated with the harmful substances in cigarette smoke (thirdhand smoke). The dangers of smoking during breastfeeding apply to using e-cigarettes as well. These also expose your baby to nicotine and other toxic substances.

Smoking and drinking not only damages the user’s body, but also causes mental and physical deformities of the fetus. Drinking alcohol and smoking while pregnant leads to brain damage and birth deformities of the newborn child. The chance of miscarriage increase along with the possibility of the baby being born early. A premature birth results in delayed comprehension, behavior problems, and lung deformities. Specifically, drinking while pregnant leads to growth problems and spinal damage to the infant. In the long-term the individual will need countless surgeries, braces, and pain medications. “Some research has shown that expectant moms who have as little as one drink a week are more likely than nondrinkers to have children who later exhibit aggressive and delinquent behavior.

Quitting smoking before becoming pregnant is the ideal situation. For women that are already pregnant quitting early can still give your baby a chance of healthy development. Some mothers and adults may think it is ok to start smoking after the baby is born, but secondhand smoke is still harmful to the baby’s health. Intervention programs start with your primary care physician and the nursing staff. They screen for tobacco usage in the adult’s home where the baby with life or currently living. Will give brief advice on how to stop smoking, provide counseling referrals for behavioral interventions. Also, pharmaceutical intervention in non-pregnant adults living in the same household, to reduce the risk of second-hand smoke exposer. Community

According to Hill, Young, Burley, Carter & Lang (2013), smoking amongst teenage girls is the most popular risk factor during pregnancy. The numerous effects of smoking while pregnant are (a) premature births (b) still births (c) miscarriages and (d) low birth rates. There are fifty seven percent of teenage mothers that smoke

Constantly smoking means the baby is smoking to, therefore smoking can begin to effect the baby’s only sources of oxygen and nutrients. Smoking contains over 4,000 chemicals including: lead, cyanide, arsenic and carbon monoxide. These chemicals can spread to the blood stream, which is the baby’s only source of oxygen and nutrients. Smoking may also result with problems taking place in the placenta. This is connected to the baby and is their source of food, oxygen and eliminates buildup of wastes. The baby can separate from the womb, which can result in bleeding, for this effect can be dangerous to the mother and child.

Also, smoking while pregnant has also lead to being the largest cause of low birth weight in babies. Smoking while pregnant affects the fetal lung development, causing offspring to fail to reach maximum lung function in childhood with subsequent lifelong decreases in pulmonary function. ( (Hayatbakhsh MR, n.d.) At birth, infants born to smokers show decreased pulmonary functions tests. Basically, anything that has to do with their breathing is substantically decreased. This increases the chances of a baby being hospitalized for respitory infections, increased wheezing, and in childhood asthma. The following quote is a research study that has shown that smoking any type of nicotine contained cigarette will result in the following, ” Moshammer and colleagues studied more than 20,000 children aged 6 to 12 years old across Europe and North America and found in utero smoke was associated with decreases in lung function parameters, with a 4% lower MMEF corresponding to a 40% increase in risk of poor lung function (defined as MMEF < 75% of expected).” (35) That number is absolutely astonishing, 40 percent of children have an increased chance of poor lung function because mother’s do not understand or care to stop the negative outcomes of smoking nicotine e-cigs or cigarette’s. Preterm delivery ( before 37 weeks) becomes increased for pregnant smokers, which interrupts normal lung development formation in itself. Most of the studies have been primarily focused on animals and then compared to

Exposure to second hand smoke, also called involuntary smoking, occurs when non-smokers breathe in the cigarette smoke from others around them. Second hand smoke is harmful to both pregnant women and infants (NTP). Paternal smoking reduces birth weight by about 2 oz. (Berger 115). After birth, babies exposed to cigarette smoke may experience more colds, lung problems, and even ear infections.

In the United States women have a choice when it involves the life of their child. A mother can read millions of books and take the suggestions from every single person who feel the need to give an opinion. Don’t sleep on your stomach, eat junk food, drink, do drugs, eat cold cuts or raw fish every pregnant person can validate they have heard these don’ts repeatedly. As many outlets of information at anyone’s fingertips at any moment why don’t people hear more about smoking while pregnant. Why aren’t pregnant women taught of the risk of smoking. Why aren’t mothers that give suggestions to pregnant women not mentioning the risk of smoking while pregnant? Think about it, when was the last time a suggestion given to a pregnant person involve

The conclusion of smoking being hazardous to the child was backed up with facts and statistics which was convincing. This study did take into account the social status of the mothers and the tendency they would have to be smokers. This is true but it was found that no differences were found between groups when looking at developmental milestones of early childhood but this is a specific group of people within Germany. I believe the findings of this article because of the proper methods used to come to the conclusion that smoking during pregnancy is a risk to the child. Germany’s statistics were taken into account to show how many women smoke and how often (p.65). This gave realistic numbers for me to follow and I could understand how many women in this study smoked in comparison to the overall average of the country. The fact that the data on nicotine came to be was based on a prenatal questionnaire. This raises some doubt in me over how accurate those findings were which negatively affected this study. Overall, this study has convinced me of the dangers of smoking and pregnancy. The defects children can have are obvious in the statistics such as ADHD, poor impulse control and even poor

Babies born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy are vulnerable and more prone to suffer from various allergies such as ear infections, lung infections and asthma. Passive smoking is also very harmful for pregnant woman and they should try and keep themselves away from any kind of smoke. Also, one must remember that there is no ‘safe’ level of smoking. Be it a pack or just one cigarette, your baby is going to be affected adversely.

Smoking tobacco has been in existence for thousands of years. For most of its existence smoking has been acceptable, tolerable, and permitted in our mainstream society. In recent years, smoking tobacco has been under scrutiny. Smoking bans have been introduced to restrict smokers from smoking in public and private places. For example, restaurants, bars, hotels, parks, and beaches throughout the United States have established the bans against public smoking. I discovered this has significance as it affects society because smoking has been a staple for thousands of years and is now being questioned whether or not smoking should be permissible. As a non-smoker this affects me personally because of the health issues and death of my family

Smoking starts causing harm, even to the unborn. A mother is a baby`s only form of life support through the umbilical cord. So,